At least 10 killed in Afghanistan attack, interior ministry says

At least 10 people were killed by gunmen in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province, Interior Ministry Spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qaniee said on Friday.

"A man fired on Sufis taking part in a weekly ritual at a shrine in a remote area of Nahrin district, killing 10 people," the ministry's Qaniee said.

A Nahrin resident, who knew victims of the attack, told AFP that worshippers had gathered at the Sayed Pacha Agha shrine on Thursday evening.

They had begun a Sufi chant when "a man shot at the dozen worshippers", he said on condition of anonymity.

"When people arrived for morning prayers, they discovered the bodies," he added.

Attacks regularly target participants during rituals or gatherings in Afghanistan, a country with a very large Muslim majority but where the Taliban authorities impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, which is different from Sufism.

In April 2022, 33 people, including children, were killed in an explosion that targeted a Sufi mosque during Friday prayers in Kunduz province.

In September, 14 people were killed and six others injured in an attack claimed by Daesh in central Afghanistan.

The Taliban took over the country in 2021 and vowed to restore security to the war-torn nation. Attacks have continued, many of them claimed by the local arm of Daesh. 

The number of bomb attacks has fallen since the Taliban authorities returned to power in 2021, but the regional branch of the Daesh, the Daesh Khorasan, still attack targets they consider heretical.