Some Taliban carried out a security control due to the risk of attacks in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, on Monday during the Ashura celebration.LUIS DE VEGA
"Do not form groups in the street!" A Taliban warned Monday through the loudspeaker of an off-road police vehicle as it drove down a Kabul avenue.
They want, in this way, that the agglomerations do not become an easy target for terrorists in the capital of Afghanistan.
The Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, with more than a million and a half residents, celebrates the Ashura festival, the main one for Shiites around the world, in the midst of psychosis due to the high risk of attacks.
Any suspicious movement is analyzed.
Those in charge of security warn several times that they are looking for two members of the Islamic State who have sneaked into the neighborhood with the worst intentions.
Neighbors and faithful from different Shia areas of Kabul repeat it when asked: “We are not afraid.
If we die, we will be martyrs.”
The authorities of the Emirate, imposed a year ago after the departure of international troops, maintain a deployment of thousands of people.
Along the same avenue through which they ask the neighbors to disperse;
A while later, two small tanks with bearded militiamen in a victorious pose circulate.
The main city of the country, with some four million inhabitants, has been the scene in recent days of several bomb attacks against the Shiite community.
The death toll exceeds 120, according to the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, a figure that the authorities of the Emirate imposed in August 2021 significantly cut. The Islamic State, of the Sunni branch, has claimed responsibility for the attacks on Friday And the saturday.
This is a clear challenge not only to the Shiites but also to the Taliban fundamentalists, also staunch enemies, even if they are Sunnis like them.
The neighborhood of Kart-e-Sakhi was the scene last week of an armed confrontation between them, with fatalities on both sides.
These attacks and skirmishes show that, contrary to what the heads of the Emirate affirm,
A group of children during the Ashura celebration in Kabul on Monday.
LOUIS DE VEGA
In the midst of a high alert for possible new attacks, Kabul dawns on Monday armored with hundreds of checkpoints by Taliban forces, especially in areas where the majority ethnic group is Shia, such as the Dasht-e-Barchi Hazara.
It is a community that represents approximately 10% of the 40 million Afghans and that is traditionally threatened by both the Taliban and the Islamic State.
From before noon until late at night, mobile phones stop working, in what Kabulis suspect is a decision by the authorities to try to hinder communications by those who seek to spread terror.
One of the Taliban members of the Dasht-e-Barchi security confirms this to EL PAÍS.
The streets of the neighborhood, in the west of the capital and bastion of the Hazara community, remain closed and with hardly any open commerce.
It is one of the favorite points to commit attacks.
The paradox is that, after taking power a year ago, the Taliban are now in charge of protecting an area where, until a few months ago, they committed numerous attacks with hundreds of victims.
Armed agents of the Emirate frisk the reporter and ask for his papers on numerous occasions, while searching his belongings to allow him access and advance through the neighborhood.
Several times they make him turn on the camera to check that he has not installed an explosive device in it and, for the same reason, to turn on the laptop.
There are even some Taliban who, in civilian clothes, follow any suspect, such as a foreigner with a camera and a backpack.
Impromptu parades of neighbors waving flags and singing chants run through the avenues, ignoring the warnings of the surveillance device.
These processions are often carried out by girls or boys, always separated and almost always dressed in black.
The mosques, adorned with flags and banners, become the center of visitors as far as they come to pay their respects.
In the improvised beach bars in the streets, tea, lemonade, water and sweets are distributed to passers-by.
Compared to this 10% Hazara, the majority ethnic group in Afghanistan is the Pashtun (40%), dominant among the Taliban, followed by the Tajik (27%) and the Uzbek (10%).
Access to a mosque in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, on Monday in the Afghan capital.LUIS DE VEGA
In another area of the capital, loudspeakers blast religious music to welcome the Shia shrine and mosque of Abu Fazl.
It is one of the main places of pilgrimage during the Ashura festival.
In the morning, dozens of men self-flagellate, making their backs bleed.
Inside, kneeling at the foot of a flag gathered around a pole that many approach as sacred, is Sahed Mehdi, 32.
He cries inconsolably with his eyes fixed on the ground and hugging the banner.
"We all have many problems and on a day like today I can't control my emotions," he says, interrupting his duel for a few seconds.
"If we die to come here, we will be martyrs and we will have to celebrate it," he replies when asked about the danger that weighs on the Shiites.
muharram
, when Shiites commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, Muhammad's grandson, in the battle of Kerbala (Iraq) in 680, which opened the split in Islam between Sunnis and Shiites.
"This place is my refuge from death," adds Sahed Mehdi in the gloom.
None of those present claim to be afraid of the wave of attacks in recent days.
Moreover, they despise the possible danger.
“There are many threats, especially with these latest explosions.
We are not afraid, we only fear Allah,” says a 32-year-old woman who frisks women who arrive at the temple despite the fact that they have already passed several controls before.
She prefers not to give her name and says that she is a "servant" of the mosque, a fort surrounded by high concrete walls.
Inside the facilities, as well as at the entrances, there are armed Taliban.
Some of them are stationed at the windows with weapons of different calibers that appear towards the street.
"This is not the first time we celebrate Ashura under threat," says Sharif, a 62-year-old mosque worker.
“This is also the case with Shiites from other countries like Pakistan, Iraq or Yemen,” he adds.
A Taliban couple approaches, casually, to control the reporter's questions.
"The Emirate gives us security," Sharif ditches complacently, avoiding polemics in front of the bearded men.
A woman and some children visited the courtyard of a mosque in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood on Monday during the Ashura celebration.LUIS DE VEGA
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