KABUL: Taliban forces have arrested a suspected Daesh militant whoallegedly planned a bomb attack that killed at least 12 worshippers at aShiite mosque in Afghanistan, police said Friday.
Daesh has claimed responsibility for the bomb blast that tore through theSeh Dokan mosque during midday prayers in the northern city ofMazar-i-Sharif on Thursday.
The attack also wounded 58 people.
Balkh province’s police spokesman Asif Waziri said Abdul Hamid Sangaryarwas a key operative of Daesh.
“He was the mastermind of yesterday’s attack on the mosque,” Waziri told*AFP*.
The country’s interior ministry also reported the arrest of Sangaryar, anAfghan national.
“He played a key role in several attacks in the past and had repeatedlymanaged to escape, but this time we arrested him in a special operation,”Waziri said.
Daesh also claimed a separate bomb attack in another northern city ofKunduz on Thursday that killed four people and wounded 18 people.
Read Top Stories
The Taliban authorities meanwhile stepped up security across Kabul’s mainmosques as worshippers performed Friday prayers in the holy month ofRamadan.
Gun-touting Taliban fighters carried out body searches of hundreds ofworshippers who arrived at the capital’s Abdul Rahman mosque, an *AFP*correspondentreported.
Daesh has taken responsibility for deadly attacks in Afghanistan, oftenagainst Shiite targets, even as the number of bombings have fallen sincethe Taliban seized power in August last year.
Shiite Afghans are mostly from the ethnic Hazara community and make upbetween 10% and 20% of the country’s 38 million people. They have long beenthe target of the Daesh, who consider them heretics.
Earlier this week, at least six people were killed in twin blasts that hita boys’ school in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul.
No group has so far claimed that attack. – APP/AFP
