Saturday’s attack was “an act of revenge” following insults by members of India’s ruling party Bharatiya Janata over the Prophet Muhammad, ISIS-Khorasan said on its Telegram channel.
Nupur Sharma, a party spokeswoman, had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad during a roundtable discussion on a news channel and his comments were allegedly followed by anti-Islam comments from another party leader on Twitter.
Seven gunmen had attempted to storm the temple in the early hours of Saturday morning and all were killed after a clash that lasted several hours, according to Kabul police.
ISIS-K told Telegram that its suicide bomber Abu Muhammad al-Tajik had reached the entrance of the temple by throwing a hand grenade at the security guard at the entrance, killing him. .
“Armed with a rifle, a pistol and hand grenades, he proceeded to fire,” the faithful inside the temple said, ISIS-K said.
A temple official said there were 30 people inside the temple at the time.
ISIS-K also claimed that its members had clashed with Taliban government fighters trying to reach the temple, targeting them with a car bomb and four other explosive devices.
He said the clashes between ISIS-K and Taliban fighters had lasted three hours and that the al-Tajik suicide attack had died in those exchanges.
“The IEA [Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] strongly condemns the target of the Hindu shrine in Kabul by the enemies of the Afghan people. The IAEA expresses its condolences to the families of the victims and assures that serious measures will be taken to identify and punish the perpetrators of this crime, “tweeted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in reference to the Sikh temple.
Outrage grows
Afghanistan, once home to tens of thousands of Sikhs and Hindus, has suffered numerous attacks on religious minority groups since the Taliban took control of the country in 2021, following the withdrawal of US forces.
Last year, ISIS claimed another attack on the Sikh community that killed more than two dozen people in another temple in Kabul.
Saturday’s attack comes amid growing outrage from the Muslim world over India over comments from BJP members, and New Delhi is struggling to contain the diplomatic consequences of Muslim-majority nations such as the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Oman and the United States. ‘Iraq.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the latest attack and called on Twitter to “protect all minorities in Afghanistan, including Sikhs, Hazara and Sufis.” .
The European Union’s ambassador to Afghanistan also condemned the attack, saying “religious (and ethnic) pluralism must be strongly protected.”
The Indian Foreign Ministry said it was “deeply concerned about reports emanating from Kabul about an attack on a sacred Gurdwara in that city”.