The Taliban Government of Afghanistan announced yesterday the transfer to the morgue, in Kabul, to perform autopsies, of the six people murdered – three Catalans and three Afghans – on Friday by a terrorist in a market in Bamiyan. The Ministry of the Interior did not specify how much time will be needed before sending the bodies of a woman and her daughter, and a man, to Spain. Another woman, an 82-year-old woman from Bilbao, is hospitalized at the center of the Italian NGO Emergency – with extensive experience in the country – after undergoing surgery on her injuries on the same Friday. According to the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, she remains in serious condition. Seven other people were injured. A team of Spanish diplomats arrived on Sunday from Qatar and Pakistan to the Afghan capital to expedite procedures and provide assistance to the rest of the group of 13 tourists.
The attack, according to the Director of Information and Culture of Bamiyan, Safiullah Rayed, occurred at six in the afternoon, local time, in a market in Bamiyan when the group “was inside a vehicle” while visiting the city. This is one of the few details shared by the Taliban, who have disseminated information in dribs and drabs – they reported seven detainees in connection with the attack, including what appears to be a single gunman – and have issued several bans on the press, such as taking images of the scene of the attack or the center where the injured are located.
Islamic State-Khorasan claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday in a message through its Amaq agency on Telegram, thus exposing the Taliban regime, which had been saying that the jihadist group was practically eradicated. But while the Taliban insisted on their security message in order to lift the country’s ruined economy, the truth is that the ISIS has continued to fight them and remains an important branch of the once powerful Islamic State. He took responsibility for the attacks in Kerman (Iran) in January and Moscow in March, and has assured that his objective is to attack Western citizens – or “from the coalition”, as they claim – “wherever they are.”
“This incident will affect the tourist flow to Afghanistan, but it will not stop, tourists will continue to come to Afghanistan,” Afghan analyst and tour guide Mohamed Nasim told Efe. According to him, security will be increased in several provinces, possibly including “armored vehicles, guards and communication systems.” On the other hand, in the opinion of British Joe Sheffer, founder of the Safarat tourism agency, “another attack like this, and tourism is dead.” His agency will reduce group sizes and limit walking outings.
Afghanistan has received about 5,200 tourists in one year, most of them Chinese. Thais also come, attracted in particular by the site of Bamiyan, where the Taliban destroyed the giant Buddha statues in 2001. Bamiyan is described as a region as beautiful as it is peaceful, but it is also the territory of the Afghan Shiite minority, the Hazara, always targeted by the Islamic State-Khorasan. Paradoxically, the perpetrator of the attack on Friday, according to some sources, was a Sunni Hazara.
