Taliban* tighten the security of Rawzae Mubarak or Imam Ali shrine, also known as Blue Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, May 5 - Sangar, Qari Ahmad. These measures are taken at a time when the city of Mazar-i-Sharif and the province of Balkh as a whole have become the main center of terrorist activity of ISIS in recent months in the north of Afghanistan.
A Sangar source in Balkh Province's police confirmed that, according to Taliban intelligence, the ISIS terrorist group is planning a series of attacks in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in the coming days, and they believe one of their targets is Rawzae Mubarak (Blessed Shrine).
“However, we do not understand what they mean: they want to attack and completely destroy Ravzae Mubarak or just blow up his territory, because it is a very crowded place. After all, anything can be expected from this group of takfirists, hostile to the Shiite and Hanafi movements. Now the entire territory of Ravzae Mubarak is under strict surveillance”, he said.
Previously, similar threats about the destruction of Rawzae Mubarak in Mazar-i-Sharif came from some suspicious individuals on social networks. One called it "a place of shirk (blasphemy)" that "will soon be destroyed."
In the photo: A Facebook post that reads: “Soon this place of shirk will be destroyed. With the permission of God!”
The Rawzae Mubarak or Ali ibn Abu Talib Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif, is one of the most important historical monuments in Afghanistan and the center of Nowruz celebrations in northern Afghanistan. According to one legend, the body of Ali Abu Talib, the last righteous Caliph (656-661), cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, is buried here.
It is said, that his body has been brought here by Abumuslim Khorasani on the advice of Imam Jafar Sadiq, the sixth Imam of the Shiites, out of fear that his tomb was not safe in Najaf, Iraq. The name of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif also comes from this tomb, which means "holy tomb". The emirs of Afghanistan - Sheralikhan, and Akbarkhan - are also buried here.
According to Sangar's interlocutors, when Ustad Atomuhammad Nur was the governor of Balkh province, there were also rumors about the destruction of Rawzae Mubarak, and for this reason, security measures were increased on his territory.
“Checkpoints and state-of-the-art metal detection devices were set up as parishioners passed through. There were checkpoints and patrols around this place,” one of them said.
The Taliban are stepping up security measures in Rawzae Mubarak after the city of Mazar-i-Sharif and the province of Balkh as a whole have become a hotbed of terrorist activity by ISIL over the past month.
On 28 April, two explosions targeting Hazara Shiites took place in the town of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing and injuring about 30 people. Earlier, on April 21, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Sedukan Mosque, the largest and oldest Shiite and Hazara mosque in the center of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing and injuring about 120 worshipers.
On April 18, the first missile attack on the territory of Uzbekistan from the Shurteppa district of Balkh province. The ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for all of these attacks.
According to reports available to Sangara, groups associated with ISIS have recently appeared in the Shurteppa, Kaldar, and Davlatabad districts of Balkh province, about which there is no detailed information.
* The organization is under UN sanctions or banned due to terrorist activities.