Afghan explosions raise sectarian concerns

The deadly bombings in Afghanistan, claimed by a group in Pakistan, targeted the minority Shiites, raising concerns of sectarian violence not seen recently. The coordinated bombings in Kabul and two other cities Tuesday killed more than 60 people -- mostly Shiites, including women and children -- and injured several dozen as large crowds of Shiites gathered outside their mosques for their most important religious observance. The attacks came a day after a large international conference in Bonn, Germany, discussed aid and other issues about the future of Afghanistan after foreign combat troops leave by end of 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who presided at the Bonn meeting, said never in Afghan history had there been such cruel attacks during religious observances. "The enemies of Afghanistan do not want us to live under one roof with peace and harmony," Karzai said. The New York Times reported Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an extremist group based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attacks, which some said they feared were attempts to further destabilize Afghanistan through sectarian violence between the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims. The report said Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has not committed such acts in Afghanistan before, which raised suspicions that al-Qaida, the Taliban or Pakistan's spy agency, or the three together along with the group, sought to send a message that Afghanistan's future is tied to cooperation from outside forces. The Wall Street Journal reported the latest attacks were the first against the Shiites since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001. "This is new," Kate Clark, a senior analyst at the Kabul-based think tank Afghanistan Analysts Network, told the Journal. "It doesn't fit into anyone's traditional mode of operation." Afghan Shiites mostly belong to the Hazara community, whose members were severely persecuted in the 1990s by the Taliban regime, the report said. The Taliban in Afghanistan denied involvement and denounced the attacks as "inhumane and un-Islamic." The attackers "want to trigger a sectarian war in Afghanistan," said an Afghan Parliament member, who is one of the Shiite community's influential leaders, the Journal said. He urged the government to help maintain civil order. The Journal said the attacks and the reported involvement of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi again called attention to Pakistan's alleged role in sheltering and supporting Afghan militants. The report said former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi a decade ago, but quoted critics as saying Pakistan has failed to crack down on the organization for fear of a violent backlash in the province of Punjab, where the group was formed. The attacks come amid deterioration of U.S. relations with Pakistan, further aggravated by the Nov. 26 NATO airstrike in which 24 Pakistani soldiers died. The New York Times said the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which once operated openly in Pakistan with the support of its spy service, has in recent years made alliance with al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban.