Hazaras Kidnapped In S. Afghanistan

Terrorists with the Takfiri group of Daesh have abducted 20 Shias from the Hazara community from a highway linking the Afghan capital, Kabul, to the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, Press TV reports.

Gunmen stopped three buses at dawn between Shah Joy and Qalat in the volatile Zabul province, first taking 17 hostages before releasing nine, local leader Wazir Mohammed Jawadi said.

He said he did not know how many people had been taken or their identity but the manager of a bus company and a provincial official said the gunmen had taken at least 14 Hazara people.

The Hazara are a Persian-speaking, Shi’ite minority that has always been persecuted in Afghanistan.

Taliban militants are suspected to have killed the seven, who had been kidnapped in the neighboring Ghazni Province almost six months earlier.

A week ago thousands of people attended the burials of seven Hazaras after their decapitated bodies were found in Zabul. The victims were beheaded.

The killings sparked demonstrations nationwide, including in Kabul, where thousands of people demanded the government improve security across the country. The protestors tried to scale the walls of the presidential palace, but the police dispersed them with warning shots. Seven people were wounded.