The Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization has stated that attacks by ISIS–Khorasan Province against Hazaras and Shia communities in Afghanistan may, under international law, amount to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
In a newly published investigative report, the organization says it has examined ISIS attacks on Hazaras and Shias in Afghanistan since 2016. According to the report, ISIS–Khorasan refers to Hazaras as “apostates” and “rejectors” and targets them in educational, health, sports, and religious centers.
The report notes that from 2015 to 2020, ISIS–Khorasan carried out 21 suicide attacks, and from 2021 to 2024, three suicide attacks against Hazaras and Shias.
The Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization further emphasizes that between 2015 and 2020 this group carried out 14 bombings, and from 2021 to 2024 it conducted 54 bombing attacks against Hazaras and Shias.
The organization says ISIS–Khorasan consistently uses hate speech and terms such as “rejector, polytheist, infidel, and apostate” against Hazaras, using this language to justify its attacks and its “intent to commit genocide.”
The report cites, for example, that after killing 14 Hazaras on the Daikundi–Ghor border, ISIS wrote in one of its publications: “Many still ask why the mujahideen of the Islamic State specifically target Shias and Rawafid in their operations and turn their cities into graveyards. Therefore, we want to clarify to all Muslims that the intensity of our operations has only one reason: our enmity with all infidels and apostates… Shias and Rawafid… they are the worst apostates in the world.”
The Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization writes that despite the severity of the crimes, the sectarian violence of ISIS–Khorasan against Hazara and Shia communities has received limited study.
It is worth noting that in recent years Hazaras and Shias have been targeted in deadly terrorist attacks.
These attacks have mostly occurred in educational centers, mosques, wedding halls, sports stadiums, hospitals, and city buses, targeting Hazara civilians—including schoolgirls and schoolboys.
