Two days after ISIS-Khorasan's deadly attack on the Taliban's Attorney General's Office on Monday, September 2nd, the Afghan Prosecutors' Association announced in a statement that 16 former government prosecutors were killed and many others were injured in the attack.
Khalid Zadran, the Taliban police spokesperson in Kabul, initially reported that six people were killed and 13 were injured in the attack.
The Afghan Prosecutors' Association stated that similar attacks in the past had also targeted Afghan prosecutors, resulting in casualties among the judiciary staff. The association, run by former government prosecutors, accused the Taliban of organizing targeted attacks against prosecutors.
The statement added: "The nature of the September 2nd attack, which resulted in the death of 16 prosecutors and the injury of many others, is no different from the attacks on prosecutors during the Republic government."
The association further claimed that former Afghan government prosecutors remain the target of Taliban reprisals and urged human rights organizations to take action to protect them.
However, on Tuesday, ISIS-Khorasan issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out in response to the transfer of their prisoners from Pul-e-Charkhi prison and other Taliban prisons to Bagram prison. ISIS-Khorasan claimed that 45 people, including prosecutors, researchers, and employees of the Taliban's Attorney General's Office, were killed or injured in the attack.
Since the Taliban's return to power, ISIS-Khorasan has focused on various targets and carried out numerous attacks in major Afghan cities such as Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Badakhshan, Kandahar, and some rural areas in eastern Afghanistan. Many of these attacks, including the recent one, have targeted former government employees.
Among the victims of Monday's attack were educated and experienced individuals who were recruited during the Republic government. Hujjatullah Mirzayi, who held a PhD in political science and served as the academic vice president of a private university, was among the victims. Mirzayi was from Badakhshan and had worked as the editor-in-chief of Fajr Weekly in northern Afghanistan. Ahmad Amin Nasiryar, Elhamuddin Yamin, Khairuddin Mazhari, and Waheedullah Nuri were other former government prosecutors, all of whom were also residents of Badakhshan. Although some social media users in Afghanistan have raised questions about the nature of the attack and suggested that the Taliban might be involved in eliminating former government employees, no evidence has been released to support this claim.
ISIS-Khorasan, which claimed responsibility for the attack, published a photo of the suicide bomber, taken before the attack to display his allegiance to the group.
In January 2023, a similar suicide attack by ISIS-Khorasan targeted a group of diplomats at the entrance of the Taliban's Foreign Ministry building. It was later revealed that 12 of the diplomats killed in the attack were former government employees who had continued their work in the ministry after the collapse of the previous government. That attack also raised suspicions about possible Taliban involvement in eliminating former government employees, but ISIS-Khorasan claimed responsibility, stating that the attack was in retaliation against the Taliban.
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| Photos of six victims of the attack and a photo of the incident site. |
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