KILLING OF SUNNI CLERIC AT HEART MOSQUE BLAMED ON IRANIAN AGENTS
ISLAMABAD 4 May. (IPS) Taleban and Afghan independent sources accused Friday Iranian terrorist agents for the explosion at a Sunni mosque in the western Afghan city of Heart, near Iranian border, killing at least eight people, including Maulavi Mohammad Mousa an exiled Iranian Sunni cleric, and injuring thirty more.
Herat Provincial Vali, (Governor) Khairollah Khaikhwa immediately put the blame on Iranian agents, saying that one of the killed in the blast might be the bomber, an Iranian, he added.
But in its first official reaction, the Iranian Foreign Ministry, while condemning the bombing, nevertheless blamed the blast on "inattention" from the official in Herat and warned both the Taleban and their Pakistani supporters that it would consider them as responsible for the safety of Iranian diplomats and citizen in Afghanistan.
As usual, the spokesman, Iraqi-born Hamid Reza Asefi blamed the explosion on the "enemies of the Islamic Republic and the people of Afghanistan" and urged international organisation to show more interest to the situation in Afghanistan and do their best to secure peaceful settlement of the Afghan conflict.
Mousa had been living in Herat for several years, reportedly since his mosque in majority Shiite Muslim Iran was burned down.
Iranian Sunni Muslim often accuse the Shi’a clergy for burning down Sunni mosques, books, harassing Sunni clerics and shutting theological schools belonging to this faith that counts some 20 millions in Iran.
Riots followed the explosion and a big, angry crowd marched on the Iranian general consulate in nearby, resulting in attacks on the Iranian building, smashing all cars, damaging the Consulate and setting fire on several Shi’ite mosques in the city, sources reported from the city.
Most of Afghanistan's 21 million people, including most of the ruling Taleban, are Sunni Muslim.
The explosion and the attack on the Iranian Consulate would further complicate the already cold relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Emirate of Afhanistan, diplomats in Tehran and Islamabad said.
Relations broke out after ten Iranian diplomats were killed in the Iranian General Consulate in Mazar Sharif in 1988, when the Taleban stormed the city, until then the "capital" of the Northern Aliance of the ousted Borhaneddin Rabbani.
The bomb exploded at the end of the traditional Friday prayers, eyewitnesses told the Persian service of the BBC.
Ebrahim Safizadeh, a spokesman for the "Alforqan Party" said he was certain that the explosion was the work of "Iranian terrorists and aimed at Maulavi Musa", an opponent of the Iranian Shi’a clerical regime.
"The Islamic Republic has a dangerous record of terrorist assassinations in Europe and here in Afghanistan", Mr. Safizadeh said.
Meahwhile, Alliance sources admitted Friday evening to have retreated from some positions around the central city of Bamiyan.
"Heavy fighting continued all the last 48 hours, with Taleban attacking our positions from land and air, but now the situation is under control", one source from the Shi’a-based Hezb Vahdat, one of the member of the Northern coalition said. ENDS HEART EXPLOSION 4501