The bodies of three Spanish tourists and three Afghan nationals, as well as many wounded, were transported to Kabul after the deadly attack on Friday on a market in Bamiyan, a tourist town in central Afghanistan, the Taliban government announced on Saturday . Some 180 km from the Afghan capital, Bamiyan, home to the giant Buddhas blown up by the Taliban in 2001, is Afghanistan’s leading tourist destination.
The victims were walking in the bazaar of this mountain town when they were the target of gunfire late Friday, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares confirmed on Saturday that three of his nationals had died, out of a “group of six Spaniards affected by the attack”, while another had been injured and operated on in Kabul.
According to the latest information, “three Afghan citizens were killed in the attack”, including a Taliban and two civilians, announced the spokesperson for the Kabul government. “Among the eight injured, including four foreigners, only an elderly foreign woman is not in a very stable situation,” added the Afghan spokesperson, stressing that the injured were now in the Afghan capital.
The bodies and the injured, as well as the other tourists in this group of 13 people, were transported to Kabul by road, as weather conditions did not allow air transport, a diplomatic source told AFP. The injured foreigners came from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain, we learned from hospital sources. “All the bodies have been transferred to Kabul and are in the forensic department,” said Abdul Mateen Qani, stressing that “women” were “among the dead and injured”, without further details.
Minister Albares announced on public television TVE that the remains of the three Spaniards would “certainly be returned to Spain on Sunday”. Spain, like other Western countries, evacuated its embassy in 2021, when the Taliban took power. The Spanish authorities are working in coordination with the European Union delegation in Kabul. The EU condemned the attack “in the strongest terms”, and the UN mission in Afghanistan said it was “deeply shocked and dismayed by this deadly terrorist attack”, adding that it was helping to manage the situation.
Seven suspects arrested
This deadly attack is apparently the first against foreign tourists in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. “Seven suspects were arrested, one of whom was injured,” he announced. “The investigation continues and the Islamic Emirate is seriously looking into this matter,” he said. The spokesperson did not specify whether there was one or more shooters.
Jose Manuel Albares also did not rule out the presence of several attackers when the group of Spaniards “were shopping in a market in the Bamiyan Valley”. “An armed person appeared, he was coming out of what was described as an alley, this person opened fire, and chaos ensued,” the minister reported, based on testimony. “From there, it is possible that other people fired shots,” he added on TVE, saying that “the modus operandi shows that it was an attack.” However, he refused to speculate at this stage, explaining that his ministry was working, “through the emergency consular unit, to clarify the circumstances”.
Condemnation and deep regrets from Kabul
With its turquoise lakes and mountains, the province of Bamiyan, known for its dynamited Buddhas, is the most touristy in the country. It is mainly inhabited by members of the Hazara community, Shiites. These are regularly targeted by deadly attacks by the Sunni Islamic State (IS) group, generally carried out with explosive devices against vehicles.
Apart from IS attacks, security has generally returned to Afghanistan since 2021, after more than 40 years of deadly conflicts. “The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns this crime, expresses its deep regrets to the families of the victims and guarantees that all the criminals will be found and punished,” the Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Friday.
The murder of tourists is bad news for this country, one of the poorest in the world and keen to develop emerging tourism. Despite the lack of infrastructure and the scarcity of cultural sites after the destruction and looting of wars, foreign tourism is beginning to emerge in this country with an extremely welcoming population and grandiose landscapes.
The number of foreign tourists in Afghanistan increased by 120% to nearly 5,200 last year over one year, according to official figures. But Western countries all advise against going there, speaking in particular of the risk of attacks or kidnappings.
from central Afghanistan