Mawlawi Mujeeb Rahman Ansari, who was killed in suicide blast inside Guzargah Mosque

New Delhi: Local News agencies in Afghanistan reported an explosion in a mosque in Herat Province of Afghanistan killing well known Imam of the Mosque Mawawi Mujeeb Rahman Ansari. 

Over two dozen people have reportedly died while over 200 are injured. No one so far has taken responsibility for the attack.

The cleric, Mawlawi Mujib Rahman Ansari, is seen as a very close member of the Taliban and last year his profile was published in The New York Times when in a sermon just ahead of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, Mawlawi Ansari suggested chopping off the hands of thieves and stoning accused adulterers. 

He had then passed harsh Islamic codes barring women from his news conferences. He had then put billboards banning music and concert, though officials did take down his billboards. He then created a lot of fear in the community. He even said then that Covid-19 was sent by God to punish non-Muslims.

Since Taliban rule, he was in a low profile and was seen as a member of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) and very close to the Taliban government. 

IS K has increased attacks on clerics close to the Taliban and some half-a-dozen prominent religious leaders and clerics have been killed in the last six months.

There have been sporadic attacks on religious leaders and prominent clerics closer to the Taliban. The month of August saw several prominent cleric leaders killed in blasts.
 
- On August 29, A Taliban leader was killed and six others were injured in a blast in Kunar province of Afghanistan in roadside mine explosion in the country.

- A Taliban vehicle hit a roadside mine in Panjshir province. The roadside mine explosion in Panjshir province's Rukha district took place on August 22.

- In August 2022 an explosion at a mosque in Kabul killed 20 people and injured 40 more, as per media reports. The blast reportedly took place in a mosque in the Khair Khana area during evening prayers. Among the dead is a top Islamic cleric named Amir Mohammad Kabuli.

- Also in August 2022, prominent Taliban cleric, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, was killed in an attack in a seminary in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, when the attacker detonated explosives hidden in a plastic artificial leg Thursday, according to officials and Taliban sources.

The Taliban claim they have full control of Afghanistan but the Islamic State continues carrying out attacks on civilians and police across the country.

Most of these attacks come on the heels of one year of Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

A survey of the Islamic State group's attacks around the world in 2021 indicates the group killed and injured more people in Afghanistan than anywhere else. In 2021, ISIS-K carried out 365 terrorist attacks in Afghanistan that caused 2,210 casualties, a significant increase compared with 2020, when 82 ISIS attacks that caused 835 deaths were reported, according to an Israeli think tank, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. Globally, ISIS operatives carried out 2,705 attacks resulting in 8,147 casualties.