KABUL, Afghanistan — A second deadly attack on Shiite worshipers in two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 36 others when a remote-controlled bomb exploded outside a mosque in northern Afghanistan, as crowds in the capital and elsewhere gathered defiantly to commemorate one of Islam’s holiest days.
The blast near the city of Mazar-e Sharif, home to one of Afghanistan’s most important Shiite shrines, followed a mass-casualty attack Tuesday in Kabul at a Shiite shrine that raised fears of further violence during the Shiite processions and gatherings.
But Shiites refused official appeals to stay off the streets, packing areas in Kabul and elsewhere for events marking Ashura, which ends a period of mourning for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad, who was killed in battle in the 7th century.
The Islamic State claimed Wednesday that it was involved in orchestrating the Kabul attack, according to the group’s media wing. The United Nations said 19 civilians were killed and more than 50 wounded when an attacker opened fire on Shiite worshipers in the “abhorrent” assault in Kabul on Tuesday night.
Many Sunni-led militant factions, including the Islamic State and the Taliban, consider Shiites part of a heretical branch of Islam. No group has taken responsibility for the Wednesday bombing,
In the capital, the area around the assaulted Karte Sakhi shrine was cordoned off to traffic, and security was extremely heavy. Dozens of uniformed and plainclothes police officers were stationed on every block, and squads of gunmen in trucks circled the ethnic Hazara Shiite district of West Kabul.
In July, suicide bombers from the Islamic State killed 80 people at a peaceful protest by Hazaras in the same community.
Even before Tuesday’s deadly violence, the Afghan government had urged people not to congregate during Ashura and expose themselves to danger. Five years ago, at another shrine in Kabul on Ashura, 70 people were killed in a suicide bombing claimed by a violent Sunni group from Pakistan.
But on Wednesday, Shiites thronged the streets in acts of quiet and dramatic defiance: pushing baby strollers, wearing sashes saying “We salute Hussein,” hoisting flags from minivans and bicycles, and smearing their cars with red paint to symbolize the blood spilled by Hussein.
“We have zero fear,” said Sayed Abdullah, 20, a geology student wearing a black tunic and green scarf to represent mourning and Islam. “Those who did this are determined to stop our gathering, but they will fail.”
Like many people in the crowd, Abdullah said there was no enmity between Afghan minority Shiites and majority Sunni Muslims, and he accused outside forces of using violence in an attempt to sow sectarian division and hatred.
“There is unity and empathy between us,” he said, adding that students of both sects in his university dorm had read the Koran and passed out alms together this week.
Nasir Alizada, 27, a metal worker, said he was at the rally that was bombed in July, where young Hazaras had gathered to protest discrimination and poor public services to their community. Although the group was left weakened and splintered by the attack, it will “continue to struggle for our rights,” he said. “We have no fear of the enemies of Islam.”
Women brought their entire families out for the Ashura events, seemingly unfazed by the previous night’s attack at the Karte Sakhi shrine.
