Afghan watchdog records 17 attacks on places of worship

Kabul, July 20 (IANS) The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has recorded 17 targeted and suicide attacks on places of worship in the last nine months which claimed the lives of 170 people.The Commission's report published on Sunday included data from October 17, 2019 to July 13, 2020, reports TOLO News.The report said that the 170 victims included four children and that 272 others were also injured in these attacks which the organization has blamed the Taliban, Islamic State and unknown armed men.It mentions attacks on two mosques and a Sikh temple in Kabul and Jalalabad and attacks on religious scholars in Takhar, Parwan, Laghman, Paktia and Helmand provinces. "Based on international rights, any attack on civilians is war crime," TOLO News quoted Zabihullah Farhang, head of media office of the commission, as saying in the report.The commission has called on the Afghan government to protect religious places in the country and hold perpetrators of such incidents accountable.
--IANS ksk/