#afghanistan mosque blast

[submalevolentgrace]

"Ramadan is a special time of year for Muslims around the world. It is a month that brings families, communities and entire countries together. For me, it was always a time of peace, spiritual dedication and reflection, and family bonding.

I remember fasting since I was a little child. My mother started training me when I was five years old, first having me complete half-day fasts. Then when I turned seven, I was able to do a full-day one, which earned me a lot of praise from family and friends.

As kids, we would stick out our tongues to each other to prove that we were fasting. A red tongue meant no fasting; a white and dry one, however, was a definite sign of it.

Most of the year my father worked abroad to provide for the family, and my mother was the one who raised and took care of us. In Ramadan, however, my father would come back to be with us.

We would start getting ready for iftar before sunset and my dad would sometimes cook the food. We would prepare special dishes, exchange food with other families and give it away to the poor. After dinner, we would go to the mosque to pray the nightly tarawih prayers.

We loved the special atmosphere Ramadan had and we all waited impatiently for this month to come each year.

In 2001, after I was sold to the CIA by local warlords in Afghanistan, I spent my 18th Ramadan in a black site – naked, blindfolded, and chained all day in a cold, dark cell under the ground. The American agents would blast loud music constantly and would only stop it when they would take me out for an interrogation. I didn’t – and couldn’t – know when Ramadan started, as I had no way to estimate the time of day.

I was given a “meal” every other day which basically involved soldiers pushing food and water into my mouth, feeding me “Meals Ready to Eat” (MREs). There was no going to the toilet, I defecated where I was chained. I lost so much weight that I passed out and I was given intravenous transfusions every few days.

Still, I wanted to observe Ramadan and decided that whenever they fed me, it was when I broke my fast. When I told the interrogators that I needed to fast because I thought the holy month had started, they mocked me.

By the time my 19th Ramadan came, I had already been transferred to Guantanamo along with hundreds of other Muslims. We were quite a diverse group; some 50 nationalities were represented and 20 languages spoken.

We were so isolated that we didn’t realise it was Ramadan until the Muslim chaplain came and told us. It turned out we weren’t supposed to know the time and date, as it was a “matter of camp security and safety”.

“Ramadan Kareem, Ramadan Mubarak”, we congratulated each other in different languages. We all knew that Ramadan was going to be hard, given the living conditions in the camp.

The guards made it difficult to fast, serving food not before sunrise and after sunset – when we would start and break our fast – but when they decided to.

We would take the food and try to hide it so we could eat later, but the guards kept conducting cell searches and punished anyone who hid food by putting them in solitary confinement and depriving them of food.

So we decided simply to refuse to eat. We spent a few days not eating and asked them to bring the food on time, threatening to go on a collective hunger strike. After a few days, they gave us two meals, one before dawn and the second after sunset.

But then the guards started intentionally delaying our meals and would even steal from them. The MREs we were given were already meagre – we even called them “Meals that Refused to Exist” – and still they always took what they liked from them, usually the sweets.

We literally starved during this time.

When we tried to do a long nightly tarawih prayer, the guards didn’t let us. They told us we were allowed to pray only five times a day and could not pray collectively. While we stood to pray, they harassed and mocked us, and conducted cell searches. The guards knew that we can’t talk while praying, yet they considered this a refusal to respond and punished us for it.

If anyone didn’t respond, the guards would call the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) team to forcibly extract a prisoner from his cell even while praying. Interrogations doubled during that Ramadan to intimidate us even more.

At one point, the interrogators started a new tactic to divide the prison population by offering to move prisoners to a quiet block if they cooperated with them. None of us bought into this; we stayed united and did things our own way.

Apart from the many challenges we faced during our first Ramadan in Guantanamo, we also spent the holy month thinking a lot about our families and homes, we missed them and missed observing Ramadan with them.

But we also realised that we had a new family – one big Guantanamo family. We talked about the different Ramadan traditions we had back home and the food we cooked. The beautiful memories we shared brought happiness and made us appreciate the holy month even more.

And so the Ramadans in detention rolled on, one after the other. We always prayed for freedom and justice, not only for ourselves but for everyone in the world who was unjustly imprisoned and oppressed.

When the holy month would come, we would sometimes be caged in solitary confinement. At other times we were in open cages where we could pass food to each other. When there was no food, or it was served too late, prisoners would share a single date or one apple or a slice of bread they managed to hide from the guards.

Sometimes the food would return to the person who first passed it on because each prisoner wanted his brother to eat first. Such moments filled my eyes with tears. Waddah, a Yemeni prisoner, was known to only eat one meal a day and would always send his meals to other prisoners, to those who starved. “I can’t bear seeing my brothers starve,” he told me. This tender man did not make it alive out of Guantanamo.

In 2006, we had one of the hardest holy months.

We were a year into our collective hunger strike, for which we were punished by being brutally force-fed. The camp administration had made rules even harsher and our living situation had worsened. The appointment of Lt Ron DeSantis – the present governor of Florida – as Judge Advocate General to supposedly ensure we are treated humanely did not make a difference

Three months before the start of Ramadan, three of our brothers – Yassir, Ali and Mana’i – died. The camp administration said they committed suicide; we knew they were lying. Two of them were approved to be released from Guantanamo; why would they take their own lives? While an official investigation by the US government maintained that the deaths were suicides, people who investigated the matter separately, including a former guard, suspected that our brothers were killed during torture.

That Ramadan, we fasted and prayed with broken hearts.

The following year, we spent the holy month in solitary confinement. The camp administration pressed on with brutal force-feeding but at least we managed to convince them to do it before dawn and after sunset to observe fasting times.

The situation continued like that till 2010, when the Obama administration decided to slightly improve our living conditions, having failed to close Guantanamo, America’s black hole. We negotiated with the camp administration to allow communal living in return for an end to the hunger strike.

That year we had one of our best Ramadans. I still remember the day it started – it was August 11, 2010. We had better food, refrigerators and microwaves, and our families and lawyers sent us spices and sweets. Prisoners from different countries cooked their dishes and shared them with everyone.

Each two blocks out of the six housing prisoners were allowed to be together during Ramadan, so we had a collective iftar every day. We shared our food with some guards and camp staff who liked it.

We were free to be together 24 hours a day so we could do all our prayers together. For the first time, we felt it was Ramadan, although we were away from our families. Some of the guards tried to fast too, we encouraged them and prepared special food for them.

During Ramadan in 2011, there was a Muslim navy guard who would always pray and fast with us. He would join us for iftar and we became very close friends. He contacted me this year and we said Ramadan Mubarak to each other.

As I mark my seventh Ramadan as a free man, I still think of my brothers, my big Guantanamo family, and the many holy months we spent together.

This Ramadan, 31 men are breaking their fasts in Guantanamo without their families, far away from their homes, having been imprisoned for more than two decades. Seventeen of them have been cleared for release.

We must not rest until all of them are free and are able to sit at the iftar table with their loved ones."

-Mansoor Adayfi, held captive by Americans for 14 years without charge

[bates--boy]

If it makes you feel better: that guy must've been Taliban, or would have been brain washed by them, eventually.

Peter just stands there, stunned and frozen, completely slackjawed as he tried to comprehend the... the sociopathy, because there was no word grossly fitting enough for the callousness he had just heard spilling out this person's mouth like dysenterous diarrhea.

When he blinks, he forces deep breaths down his lungs, and places his hands flat on the table to lean against.

"Greyface, I want you to repeat that. I want you to say that again, but slowly, so you can listen to yourself say that you are willing to gun down a scared kid on the slimmest chance that he was a part of a terrorist group. I want you to hear yourself say that while you imagine some babyfaced young man pleading for his life and literally crying while he was bleeding from gunshot wounds, anyway. And you explain to me why--"

He then holds his hands up, turning his face away. "Honestly, no, don't explain to me, because I know it's going to be the same anti-Muslim Western propaganda bullshit that's been shoved down our throats for the past twenty years." When he crosses his arms, Peter let's out a dry, cracked laugh, tight as the rest of his body that he's pulling in, his eyes far away as he fights to stay here, in the dining room, and not in the sand and bomb blasts and the weeping and gnashing of teeth in that godforsaken desert.

"'That guy must've been Taliban'. I absolutely love how you say that as if that even mattered, or as if that kid had a choice. Like, you don't think that sort of shit doesn't just happen out of thin air, do you? Please tell me that you're at least not that stupid, and can recognize how this shit even started. Because as much as I hate the anti-Western extremism, you have to wonder what would Afghanistan have been like if the Western societies like America and the Soviet bastards hadn't swooped in and made it their new playground. What else are these... kids, these kids supposed to have done when both sides of the war lie about 'fighting for the good of Afghanistan' while both sides are bombing their schools and mosques and gunning down their families and friends?"

And Peter feels all the more foolish for even entertaining this Greyface, knowing fully well that all they were doing was trying to get a rise out of him, but he's starting to shake, clenching up everywhere, glassy eyes seeing that face and that pencil mustache and scrawny frame, because he was too young, they were both too young and this was neither of their fight. And he realizes that he is pleading. He is pleading forgiveness in doing this, pleading forgiveness from that child's mother, his father, his little siblings and friends who must have spent the better part of a decade mourning him.

Peter swallows thickly, now trapped in that desert where bullets rain. He digs his nails into his arms. "...Please leave."

[chubbycaucasianchristiancloseted]

3 years ago

3 years ago. What a disgrace the withdraw was.

Direct Quotes:

A group of suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque in southern Afghanistan, triggering explosions that killed dozens of people during crowded Friday prayers.

The attack came only a week after a similar blast killed dozens of Shiite worshippers in the country's north.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.14 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway, preceding a larger force which will arrive two days later. 1941 – World War II: German and Italian forces attack Tobruk, Libya. 1944 – Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 300 and causes economic damage valued at 20 million pounds. 1945 – Razing of Friesoythe: The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division deliberately destroys the German town of Friesoythe on the orders of Major General Christopher Vokes. 1958 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a female dog named Laika, who likely lived only a few hours. 1967 – Gnassingbé Eyadéma overthrows Nicolas Grunitzky and installs himself as the new President of Togo, a title he will hold for the next 38 years. 1978 – Tbilisi demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language. 1979 – The Progressive Alliance of Liberia stages a protest, without a permit, against an increase in rice prices proposed by the government, with clashes between protestors and the police resulting in over 70 deaths and over 500 injuries. 1981 – STS-1: The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia completes its first test flight. 1986 – The heaviest hailstones ever recorded, each weighing 1 kilogram (2.2 lb), fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92. 1988 – The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. 1988 – In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. 1991 – The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President following its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. 1994 – In a friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two U.S. Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two U.S. Army helicopters, killing 26 people. 1997 – Pai Hsiao-yen, daughter of Taiwanese artiste Pai Bing-bing is kidnapped on her way to school, preceding her murder. 1999 – NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees. Yugoslav officials say 75 people were killed. 1999 – A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history. 2002 – Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military. 2003 – The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%. 2003 – U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner MS Achille Lauro in 1985. 2005 – The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples a year earlier by Multnomah County. 2006 – Twin blasts triggered by crude bombs during Asr prayer in the Jama Masjid mosque in Delhi injure 13 people. 2014 – Two bombs detonate at a bus station in Nyanya, Nigeria, killing at least 88 people and injuring hundreds. Boko Haram claims responsibility. 2014 – Boko Haram abducts 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria. 2016 – The foreshock of a major earthquake occurs in Kumamoto, Japan. 2022 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Russian warship Moskva sinks. 2023 – The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is launched by the European Space Agency.

[head-post]

Islamic State took responsibility for minibus explosion in Kabul

The Islamic State group (IS) has claimed responsibility for a minibus explosion in the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing at least seven people.

Afghan police reported that 20 more people were injured in an attack in the Shiite area of the Dashti Barchi, located west of Kabul. The Sunni militant group claimed its members detonated an explosive device on a bus carrying Shiite Muslims on Tuesday.

The blast was the second such attack in the area in recent weeks. Four people were killed and seven injured in an explosion at a sports club on October 26. IS claimed responsibility for that attack as well.

The Dashti Barchi area in Kabul has been repeatedly targeted by the IS affiliate in Afghanistan, including attacks on schools, hospitals and mosques. The group has also targeted other Shiite neighbourhoods across the country.

Read more HERE

[brexiiton]

Dozens dead after blast in Pakistan at a rally celebrating birthday of Islam's prophet

By Associated Press, 6:38pm Sep 30, 2023

A powerful bomb exploded in a crowd of people celebrating the Prophet Muhammad's birthday in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 52 people and wounding nearly 70 others, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in recent years.

TV footage and videos on social media showed an open area near a mosque strewn with the shoes of the dead and wounded. Some of the bodies had been covered with bedsheets. Residents and rescuers were seen rushing the wounded to hospitals, where a state of emergency had been declared and appeals were being issued for blood donations.

The bombing occurred in Mastung, a district in Baluchistan province, which has witnessed scores of attacks by insurgents. However, the militants normally target the security forces. The Pakistan Taliban have repeatedly said that they do not target places of worship or civilians.

TV footage and videos on social media showed an open area near a mosque strewn with the shoes of the dead and wounded. (AP)

Around 500 people had gathered for a procession from the mosque to celebrate the birth of the prophet, known as Mawlid an-Nabi, an occasion marked by rallies and the distribution of free meals.

Some of the wounded were in a critical condition, government administrator Atta Ullah said. Thirty bodies were taken to one hospital and 22 were counted at another, Abdul Rasheed, the District Health Officer in Mastung, said.

A senior police officer, Mohammad Nawaz, was among the dead, Ullah said. Officers were investigating whether the bombing was a suicide attack, he added.

Friday's bombing came days after authorities asked police to remain on maximum alert, saying militants could target rallies for Mawlid an-Nabi.

Also Friday, a blast ripped through a mosque located on the premises of a police station in Hangu, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing at least two people and wounding seven, said Shah Raz Khan, a local police officer.

He said the mud-brick mosque collapsed because of the impact of the blast and rescuers were pulling worshippers from the rubble. Police say it was not immediately clear what caused the blast.

A boy injured by the explosion receives treatment at a hospital in Mastung near Quetta, Pakistan. (AP)

No one claimed responsibility for the blast in Hangu, and the cause was unclear. About 40 people were praying at the mosque at the time, most of them police officers.

Pakistan's President Arif Alvi condemned the attacks and asked authorities to provide all possible assistance to the wounded and the victims' families.

In a statement, caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti denounced the bombing, calling it a "heinous act" to target people in the Mawlid an-Nabi procession.

Youngsters in traditional dress take part in a ceremony celebrating the birthday of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP)

The government had declared Friday a national holiday. President Alvi and caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-haq-Kakar in separate messages had called for unity and for people to adhere to the teachings of Islam's prophet.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Friday's bombing, but Pakistani Taliban quickly distanced themselves from it. Known at Tehreek-e-Taliban, or TTP, the Pakistani Taliban is separate from the Afghan Taliban but closely allied to the group which seized power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

The Islamic State group has claimed previous deadly attacks in Baluchistan and elsewhere.

Also Friday, the military said two soldiers were killed in a shootout with Pakistani Taliban after insurgents tried to sneak into southwestern district of Zhob in Baluchistan province. Three militants were killed in the exchange, a military statement said.

The gas-rich southwestern Baluchistan province at the border of Afghanistan and Iran has been the site of a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades. Baluch nationalists initially wanted a share of provincial resources, but they later launched an insurgency calling for independence.

Muslims chant religious slogans during a rally celebrating the birthday of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (AP)

Friday's bombing was one of the worst in Pakistan in the last decade. In 2014, 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

In February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing Peshawar police headquarters. In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. And in July, at least 54 people were killed when a suicide bomber dispatched by an Afghan branch of the Islamic State group targeted an election rally by a pro-Taliban party in northwest Pakistan.

[clickvibes]

Mass Suicide Bombings At Two Mosques In Pakistan. 60 Dead, 100 Injured (graphic)

#Hangu Blast #UPDATE: At least four people were martyred and 12 others were injured in a blast inside a masjid in Hangu area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province #Pakistan. Many people still under the Rubble , As Per officials Two suicide bombers and an explosion laden vehicle was intercepted on the gate of the police mosque in Doaba, “one of the bombers was neutralised on the gate” when he tried to enter the mosque, during which the second suicide bomber exploded in the mosque after entering it. kill four worshippers Source: Ghulam Abbas Shah Four Pakistan army soldiers killed and 5 more critically injured in an RPG attack by Taliban near Durand line in Zhob region. Source: WLVN Analysis A powerful explosion from a suicide bomber at a religious rally near a mosque in southwest Pakistan killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 50 others, the Dawn newspaper reported citing health officials. The blast took place in Mastung district of Balochistan province where people were gathering to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, the paper reported. Balochistan region is a hot spot of militancy and borders Afghanistan and Iran. Source: Bloomberg  https://www.nairaland.com/7859611/mass-suicide-bombings-two-mosques Read the full article

[eurovisionsocialnewswire]

PAKISTAN: Hospital crowded after at least 52 people killed in suicide bombing [PHOTOS]

At least 52 people have been killed in a suicide bombing in a Pakistani town near the border with Afghanistan. The blast near a mosque in Mastung, in the Balochistan province, came as people were observing a public holiday marking the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. People were reportedly gathering in the area for a procession to celebrate the occasion. Local health officials have said…

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] A suicide bombing in Pakistan killed at least 52 people and injured more than 50 on Friday at a religious gathering to mark the birthday of Prophet Muhammad in a restive province bordering Afghanistan, health officials and police said.No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which come amid a surge in attacks by militant groups in Pakistan, raising the stakes for security forces ahead of national elections scheduled for January next year.Hours after the suicide blast in the Mastung district in Baluchistan province, another blast ripped through a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which also borders Afghanistan, officials said, killing at least two people.The mosque's roof collapsed in that blast, local broadcaster Geo News reported, adding that about 30 to 40 people were trapped under the rubble.No immediate claimPakistan has seen a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants since last year when a ceasefire broke down between the government and the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization of various hardline Sunni Islamist groups.The TTP, which has carried out some of the bloodiest attacks inside Pakistan since its formation in 2007, denied that it had carried out Friday's attack in Baluchistan.Men and paramedic staff transfer a man who was injured in a blast in Mastung, from an ambulance outside a hospital in Quetta. (Reuters)The Islamic State group has also carried out previous attacks in the province.At least 58 people were wounded in the Baluchistan blast, said Abdul Rasheed, a district health official, adding that the toll could rise as many people were in a serious condition.Television footage of the attack's aftermath showed hundreds of people helping the injured into ambulances."The bomber detonated himself near the vehicle of the deputy superintendent of police," Munir Ahmed, the deputy inspector general of police, told Reuters.In July, more than 40 people were killed in a suicide bombing in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at a religious political party's gathering. [ad_2]

[yhwhrulz]

Islamic State on Friday claimed responsibility for an explosion inside a mosque in northern Afghanistan the da

[all-about-news24x7]

Taliban officials targeted in Afghanistan mosque blast

An explosion inside a mosque in north-east Afghanistan has caused multiple casualties, media reports said Published Date – 08:00 AM, Fri – 9 June 23 Photo: IANS Kabul: An explosion inside a mosque in north-east Afghanistan has caused multiple casualties, media reports said. Reports said several local Taliban officials were among those killed or wounded. A local official said the blast took…

[maniraja1]

Afghanistan blast: Taliban officials targeted at mosque prayers

Mourners were attending the funeral of a senior official killed in a bombing by Islamic State militants.

[qudachuk]

Mourners were attending the funeral of a senior official killed in a bombing by Islamic State militants.

[hardynwa]

Suicide bomber kills nine police officers in Pakistan

A suicide bomber killed nine police officers and wounded 16 others Monday in an attack on their truck in southwestern Pakistan, officials said. Security forces have been battling a years-long insurgency by militants in Balochistan demanding a bigger share of the province’s wealth, as well as attacks by the Pakistan Taliban (TTP). “The suicide bomber was riding a motorbike and hit the truck from behind,” senior police official Abdul Hai Aamir told AFP. The incident took place near Dhadar, the main town of Kachhi district, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of Quetta in Balochistan. Photos of the aftermath showed the police truck upside down on the road with its windows shattered. Mehmood Notezai, police chief for Kachhi district, told AFP the officers were returning from a week-long cattle show where they had been providing security. There has been no claim of responsiblity for the attack. “Terrorism in Balochistan is part of a nefarious agenda to destabilise the country,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement released by his office. The country is facing overlapping political, economic and environmental crises, as well as a worsening security situation.– Attacks on the rise – Attacks have been on the rise in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban seized control of Kabul in August 2021, emboldening militant groups along the border which have increasingly targeted security forces. Last month five people died when a TTP suicide squad stormed a police compound in the port city of Karachi. It came just weeks after a bomb blast at a police mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed more than 80 officers — an attack claimed by a group sometimes affiliated with the TTP. “Despite different ideological, ethnic and political outlooks, (militant groups) are all franchises bound by one objective: to hit the security forces and instil a sense of fear and uncertainty in Pakistan,” said Imtiaz Gul, an analyst with Islamabad’s Center for Research and Security Studies. Balochistan, which borders both Afghanistan and Iran, is the largest, least populous and poorest province in Pakistan. It has abundant natural resources, but locals have long harboured resentment, claiming they do not receive a fair share of its riches. Tensions have been stoked further by a flood of Chinese investment under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, which locals say has not reached them. China is investing in the area under a $54 billion project known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, upgrading infrastructure, power and transport links between its far-western Xinjiang region and Pakistan’s Gwadar port. Read the full article