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Taliban massacre 11 Pakistani Shias

11 July 2010 01:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Suspected Taliban militants have killed at least 11 Pakistani Shia Muslim tribesmen and injured several others in Afghanistan’s eastern border province of Paktia, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

According to a local official, three others were injured in the attack which took place in the border town of Chamkani on Saturday.

The official said the assailants then opened fire on a bus carrying the bodies of the victims of an earlier raid.

Afghan police officials have launched an investigation into the incident.

The attack comes amid rising violence in Afghanistan. Earlier in June, the country’s security forces found 11 decapitated bodies of Afghan Shias in the southern Uruzgan Province.

Afghan officials blamed the killings on the Taliban.

Thousands of Shia Muslims were killed in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001.

Mass graves containing the beheaded bodies of Shia Muslims have been found since the Taliban were overthrown following the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Civilians have been the main victims of violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the country’s troubled southern and eastern provinces.

The 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan was launched with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country.

Nine years on, however, Afghanistan remains unstable and civilians continue to pay the price.