KABUL At least 25 worshippers at a Sikh religious complex in the Afghan capital of Kabul were shot dead when a lone Islamic State group gunman rampaged through temple. The attacker held hostages and battled Afghan security forces as they tried to clear the building alongside British troops. At one point some 200 people were feared to be trapped and when the incident came to an end the ministry of interior said at least 25 people inside the temple had been killed, including at least one child. The SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks militant postings and groups, said IS claimed responsibility for the attack on the group’s Aamaq media arm. At a Kabul hospital, Mohan Singh, who was in the Gurdwara when the attack began, said he first heard the sound of gunshots and ran for cover under a table. Later he heard the sounds of explosions, adding that he believes they were hand grenades. He was injured when parts of the ceiling fell on him. In photographs shared by the Interior Ministry, about a dozen children were seen being rushed out of the Gurdwara by Afghan special forces, many of them barefoot and crying. Earlier, as the news of the attack broke, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed tweeted that the Taliban were not involved. Sikhs are a small religious minority in Afghanistan with numbers fewer than 300 families. Narender Singh Khalsa, a member of parliament who represents the tiny Sikh community, said he had reports that four people had been killed and up to 200 people trapped inside the temple in the early morning attack. “Three suicide bombers entered a dharamsala,” he said, referring to a sanctuary area in a temple compound. The Afghan interior ministry said that eight people were wounded and 80 rescued by the forces’ personnel. Four suicide attackers were also killed in the operation against them, said an Afghan National Army Commando Corps’ official earlier. Meanwhile, Pakistan has strongly condemned the ‘heinous terrorist attack’ on Gurdwara on Wednesday, said the Foreign Office. “Such despicable attacks have no political, religious or moral justification and must be rejected outright,”according to the FO. The Foreign Office said that Pakistan condemns terrorism in ‘all its forms and manifestations’, adding that all places of worship must be respected. “Our hearts go out to the families who have lost their loved ones in this inhuman act and we pray for the swiftest recovery of the injured. We also express our abiding solidarity with the fraternal people of Afghanistan,” read the official statement from the ministry.
