Thorn in the side

In a grotesque terror attack carried out through a suicide bomb at Kaaj Higher Education Centre in Kabul, nearly 50 lives have been lost. Sadly, most of the victims were women and Hazara Shias who are in minority in Afghanistan, and have always been facing the brunt of such dastardly terror attacks carried out by ISIS and its affiliates. According to credible reports, a suicide bomber blew himself up next to the women at a gender-segregated study hall of a private college in a Kabul neighbourhood (September 30). The neighborhood is home to the oppressed Hazara community. The bomber detonated, as hundreds of students were appearing in a practice test ahead of an entrance exam for university admissions. The Islamic State group which regards Shias as heretics, and had previously staged attacks in the area targeting girls, including schools and mosques. Hazaras have also been targeted in Herat in recent years.

It may be reiterated that the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan last year brought an end to a two-decade war against the US, and also led to a relative reduction in violence, yet, security has begun to deteriorate in the recent past. Since then, there has not been any moment of quiet, and Shia minorities are killed at regular intervals in mosques. This time around, the tragedy unfolded in an education centre where young women students had gone to firm up their examination preparations. Reacting against the incident, on October 2, more than 100 women, mostly Hazara Shias, marched in Herat against the attack, which was one of the deadliest in recent years. Their placards read, "education is our right, genocide is a crime." The protesters also chanted these slogans as they made their way from Herat University to the office of the governor. Dressed in black hijabs and headscarves, the protesters were stopped from reaching the office by heavily armed Taliban forces, who also ordered journalists not to report on the rally. Another group of women students, who were prevented from protesting on the street, staged a separate rally on the campus of the university. As is well known, the Hazaras have been regularly facing attacks and persecution in Afghanistan for decades, targeted by the Taliban during their insurgency against the former US-backed government and also by Daesh. It may also be recalled that in May last year, before the Taliban's return to power, at least 85 people, mainly girls, were killed and about 300 were wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in Dasht-e-Barchi. Again, no group claimed responsibility, but a year earlier, Daesh or the IS had claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the same area that killed 24. This indicates the ongoing pattern of violence against the minorities.

Meanwhile, Iran, which is already reeling under severe women-led protest marches and agitation against the killing of a twenty-two-year-old woman by the morality police on hijab issue, has not come out openly criticising the suiciding bombings in Kabul. It is expected of Iran, which is predominantly a Shia country, to come down heavily on the Taliban government in Afghanistan for its ineptitude and abject failure to ensure the security and protection of the Shia minority. Unless pressure is mounted on Afghanistan by Iran and other countries of significance, Shia minority will continue to face fatal attacks from the terrorist. And, this time in particular, the aspiring women students' loss reflects the hard and sad reality that the emancipation and education of women in Afghanistan is a distant dream. This is despite the global community's occasional criticism of the anti-women stance by Afghanistan, which appears more cosmetic than a meaningful or realistic diatribe. Objectively, even a women activist like Malala Yousufzai, who herself was a victim of terror attack, has come to notice for not doing enough to protect the women in Afghanistan.

In the meantime, a section of Shia scholars and academics have analysed that the deadly Sunni terror group thriving in Pakistan by the name of Sipah-e-Sahaba is strongly suspected to be part of a larger conspiracy, which conceives plans to target the Shias in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is ironic that Pakistani authorities and the Deep State are inert on such activities, and are constantly failing to prevent execution of this sinister blueprint to exterminate the Shias in Afghanistan. Therefore, by implication, their complicity seems likely. What the international community in general, and the UN in particular, should do besides condemning the bombings is to devise a mechanism to take the Taliban government to task to prevent such ghastly occurrences. If the UN remains indifferent, then it is conspicuously failing in its duty to safeguard the dignity and wellbeing of women in the trouble-torn Afghanistan.

The writer is a retired IPS officer, a security analyst and a former National Security Advisor to the PM of Mauritius. Views expressed are personal