KABUL (AFP) – Daesh has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Sikh temple in Afghanistan that killed one community member and a Taliban militant.
In a message posted on its Amaq propaganda site, the Daesh terrorist group said Saturday’s attack targeted Hindus and Sikhs and the “apostates” who protected them.
Daeh said one of its militants “penetrated a temple for Hindu and Sikh polytheists in Kabul, after killing its guard, and opened fire on the pagans inside with his machine gun and hand grenades”.
Two were killed and at least seven others wounded in the raid.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the attackers lobbed at least one grenade when they entered the temple, setting off a blaze.
The attack follows a visit by an Indian delegation to Kabul to discuss the distribution of humanitarian aid from India to Afghanistan.
Afghan and Indian media reports said the delegation discussed with Taliban officials the possibility of reopening the Indian embassy, which shut after the Taliban seized power in August last year.
The number of bombings across Afghanistan has dropped since the Taliban returned to power, but several attacks — many targeting minority communities — have rocked the country in recent months, including several claimed by Daesh.
The Shia Hazara community, another minority in Afghanistan, has been the main target of frequent bomb attacks and explosions in the war-ravaged country.
On Friday, an explosion at a mosque in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz left one person dead and two others wounded.
Last month, three deadly explosions tore through passenger vehicles in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and a separate one hit a mosque in Kabul, killing several people.
Back in April, a powerful blast hit a mosque in western Kabul during prayers, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20 others.