14 Hazara Passengers Taken Hostage in Zabul Province, Afghanistan

Armed individuals have taken at least 14 passengers, who are from the Hazara ethnic group, hostage in Zabul Province, Afghanistan. This kidnapping occurs ten days after widespread protests against the beheading of seven Hazara captives by ISIS. The police chief of Zabul stated on Saturday, November 30, that he has no information about the number of abductees or their identities, but the manager of a bus company and a local official reported that armed men stopped three night passenger buses on the main road from Kabul to Kandahar and, after checking the passengers' identification documents, took only the Hazara passengers with them. Asadullah Kakabar, a member of the Zabul Provincial Council, also reported the abduction of 20 people, all but two of whom were Hazara. Throughout this year, there have been multiple instances of attacks on Hazara individuals, leading to their abduction and killing. Notably, ten days ago, after Zabul officials announced the discovery of the bodies of seven Hazara individuals, including two women and a young girl who had been beheaded, widespread protests erupted for several days in front of the presidential palace in Kabul. According to local officials, these seven individuals had been kidnapped about a month and a half earlier in the province. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, calling for calm, promised the demonstrators that his government would work harder to ensure road safety. In the 1990s, several thousand Hazaras, who are Persian-speaking and Shia, were killed by the Taliban and al-Qaeda.