Thousands Protest over Persecution of Minorities in Afghanistan

The protesters were chanting death to supporters of terrorism in Afghanistan, while other protesters chanted death to supporters of the Taliban. The bodies of the seven victims, who are believed to have been held hostage by unknown gunmen for months, were found on Saturday in Zabul province, where fighting between rival Taliban groups has escalated over recent days.

The seven civilians, who were members of the minority Shiite community, were reportedly kidnapped by ISIS fighters more than a month ago.

Besides blaming the Taliban and Islamic State, a few Hazara took to social media to point the finger more generally at Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group from which Islamist movements recruit most of their followers.

“There is infighting between two factions of Taliban” in the province said Gul Islam Sial, a spokesman for Zabul’s governor.

On Tuesday, demonstrators, many of whom had traveled with the coffins to the capital, 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Zabul, held an overnight vigil.

President Ashraf Ghani sent a delegation to Ghazni to investigate the killings, his office said. Much of that violence has involved the Taliban, though al Qaeda – which, led by the late Osama bin Laden, called Afghanistan home before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – continues to be a threat.

Marchers carried coffins in the pouring rain.

The United Nations (UN)’s Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, in a statement decried the deaths as a violation of the global law.

“We want justice and we want this government, Ghani and Abdullah, to go so that we can have a government that protects all the people of the country and brings security to the whole country”, civil society activist Zahra Sepehr, one of the protest organizers, said.

Protesters included members of several ethnic groups, including Pashtuns, Uzbeks and Tajiks, along with Hazaras.

In a hastily arranged television address, Ghani, whose unwieldy national unity government has come under growing pressure because of deteriorating security, promised action but called for emotions not to spill over.

Eng. Zakaria Zakarya, a lawmaker from Kabul province, said: “The incident of Khakh-i-Afghan was the worst of its kind in the history of the country”. “Our voice wants justice, brotherhood, sanctity of life, peace and equality. We will not let the coffins down and will not bury them until the government listens to our cries for justice”.