Kabul, Dec 7 (ANI): Analysts have said the twin blasts in Afghanistan were not home grown, but an act of "the enemies" of the country.
"There is no sign of tension between Sunnis and Shiites in Afghanistan. This was just an act of the enemies of Afghanistan," the Christian Science Monitor quoted Fakori Beheshti, a Member of Parliament from Bamiyan, a predominately Shiite province, as saying.
"It came after the Bonn Conference about the peace and stability of Afghanistan and, by carrying out these blasts not just in Kabul, but in Mazar-e Sharif and Kandahar, it showed that they are against the achievements of Afghanistan and trying to get media attention," he added.
Early reports have indicated that the bombing might have been the work of the Pakistani group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi together with the Haqqani Network, which also maintains strong ties to Pakistan.
"This attack is not the work of those Taliban who ruled Afghanistan in the past. Even during that time every sect had their freedom to celebrate their holidays. I would say this is the act of those intelligence circles and spies of Pakistan who are trying to start a new phase of Sunni and Shiite tension in the country," Mohammad Hassan Walasmal, an independent political analyst in Kabul, said.
Meanwhile, a Sunni militant group based in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in Afghanistan that killed at least 60 Shiites last evening.
The deadly attack took place at a mosque in Kabul, where worshippers were observing a Shiite holy day (Ashoura-ah-SHOOR'-ah) that marks the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of men, women and children gathered outside the shrine.
In the second attack, a bomb on a bicycle exploded as a convoy of Shiites passed on a road in a northern city (Mazar-i-Sharif-mu-ZAR'-eh-sheh-REEF'). The Interior Ministry says police defused a second bomb planted near the first.
Religiously motivated attacks on Shiites are rare in Afghanistan, but are common in neighboring Pakistan.
A man claiming to represent a ruthless Sunni militant group claimed responsibility for the Kabul bombing in front of journalists in Pakistan, Fox News reports.
While the Taliban has condemned the attacks, a top Shiite cleric in Kabul said that "Muslims will never forget these attacks."
The Public Health Ministry has said that 56 people were killed and over 160 injured in the blasts. (ANI)
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