Global human rights organizations call for urgent action on current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan

Three global human rights organizations issued a joint statement on Tuesday on the latest developments in Afghanistan, in wake of the increasing number of victims of the devastating earthquake in Herat, and the terrorist attack that targeted a Shia mosque in the center of Balkh province in the north of the country.

The World Shirazi Foundation, Shia Rights Watch and the Non-Violence Organization, said in their joint statement, received by Shia Waves Agency, said that “the Afghan ‘Bamyan’ Foundation had appealed to us to be, as we have always known it, the voice of the oppressed Afghans in general and the persecuted Shias and Hazaras in particular, to convey their tragedies and the oppression they are enduring in international forums.”

The statement continued that this appeal comes “in the wake of the terrorist attack that targeted Shia worshipers while performing Friday prayers in a mosque in the center of Balkh province in northern Afghanistan, on Friday, October 13, 2023; more than a week after the devastating earthquake that struck the city of Herat on Saturday, October 7, 2023, and left about 3,000 dead and more than 10,000 injured.”

It pointed out that “what is happening in the country—especially the injustice against the Shia Muslims—is completely ignored by the international community, as the world is now the more concerned with what is happening in the Middle East.”

The three institutions confirmed in the statement their “commitment to their humanitarian, religious and moral mission towards the Afghan people, especially the followers of Ahlulbayt, peace be upon them.”
The humanitarian organizations called on religious authorities, global official and non-governmental bodies and humanitarian organizations to “take the initiative urgently to extend a helping and send assistance to the victims of the latest earthquake that struck Herat.”

They also strongly condemned “the latest terrorist bombing that targeted the mosque where Shia Muslims were praying,” blaming Taliban, as the de facto authority, responsible for protecting the lives, property and honor of civilians.”

The statement expounded that “reports indicate the killing and injury of at least 700 Shia Hazara civilians as a result of terrorist attacks during two years of Taliban rule, in addition to the migration of about two million Hazaras to escape Taliban’s oppression, not to mention the alarming reports on the negligence of the Taliban authority and its inability to address the impacts of the latest earthquake.”