Militants abduct 10 Shia Hazaras in Afghanistan’s Ghazni
Unknown gunmen have abducted 10 Hazara people in eastern Afghanistan as attacks on members of the Shia community keeps surging in the country.
Local officials in the eastern province of Ghazni said Wednesday that gunmen opened fire on several cars near Qarabagh district and abducted at least 10 Shia Hazaras.
Zafar Sharif, the governor of Jaghuri district, said the captives were all residents of the Hazara-majority area, and were traveling to the provincial capital, which is also called Ghazni.
He added that “tribal elders are putting their efforts into the release of the abducted people.”
The Wednesday abductions came against the backdrop of rising attacks by the Taliban and other militants on members of the Hazara Shia community.
Local officials announced Tuesday that they had recovered bodies of four men who were abducted last week in Ghazni’s Nawur district bordering Pakistan. They said the abductees were engineers working on a construction site in the area and three of them belonged to the Hazara community.
In February, masked gunmen kidnapped 30 Hazara men in Zabul Province, located south of Ghazni. The men were travelling by bus from Iran when they were seized. The gunmen took their money and phones before leaving them.
Also in April, four Hazara farmers were kidnapped in Ghazni Province as they were buying livestock in the local market. They were beheaded by the gunmen after local authorities rejected the kidnappers’ demands to release comrades of the militants who were held by the government.
Hazaras currently make up nine percent of Afghanistan’s estimated 31-million-strong population.
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