INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image caption
Kabul's Hazaras are feeling under attack
Tears and wails of grief fill the air around a
hilltop cemetery in the outskirts of Kabul
"Why did you leave us" one distraught mother cries out
Another lovingly caresses the photograph of her dead child
Families of about 50 students killed in a suicide bombing by the Islamic State group on a tuition centre in the Afghan capital in August
have gathered here for a memorial service
Many of the dead were just teenagers
All were from the Hazara community
Followers of the Shia sect of Islam who are believed to be descendants of the Mongols, Hazaras are hated by IS who view them as heretics
Armed soldiers stand guard around the graves in case of further attack
Amongst those killed was 16-year-old Fatima
Her mother Amina tells me she used to weave carpets to pay for her schooling
One, unfinished, lies by the entrance to their small home
Fatima had been working on it the day she died."She was my eldest child
She was very good and very brave," Amina tells the TheIndianSubcontinent
"She used to ask me to pray she would one day become a doctor." Image caption
Fatima weaved carpets to pay for her
education
Fatima's father Nasrullah recalls the moment he found his daughter's body."I went to lots of different hospitals
after the attack trying to find her
moved to Kabul from another province around two years ago to search for work
But the Shia dominated neighbourhood they settled in, Dasht-e-Barchi, in the west of Kabul, has become a focus of IS attacks
Fatima's father wants to go back to their village, but her mother is torn about what to do
"I'm not letting my other children go to school now because there's no security here
It's a bad situation, but if we leave Kabul, I will be leaving Fatima behind." At the bombed tuition centre, shrapnel is stuck in the
blackboard whilst handwritten notes lie among the rubble
This horrific attack was one of more than a dozen claimed by IS in Kabul this year
Image caption
Most of the dead were teenagers
IS militants first appeared in Afghanistan in 2015, and
although they are outnumbered by the Taliban with whom they have at times clashed, they have established a stronghold in the east of the
IS have been repeatedly targeted by US airstrikes, with a number of their leaders killed, but over the past two years they carried out more
attacks in the Afghan capital than any other militant group
Hazaras are reported to make up 9-15% of the population in Afghanistan, though figures are at times disputed
They have often faced violence and discrimination both because of their ethnicity and their Shia faith, including when the Taliban were in
The hardline Islamists ruled from 1996 until they were toppled by US-led forces in 2001.But Hazara leaders say even the Taliban have never
targeted the community in the kind of deliberate sectarian suicide bombings that IS are now carrying out
As a result, many Hazaras are deciding to leave the country
Mohammad Sadiq runs a secondhand shop in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood
He says he set it up last year to buy the possessions of the rising number of community members leaving Afghanistan to seek sanctuary in
"People are fleeing the country because of unemployment and the lack of security," Mr Sadiq told the TheIndianSubcontinent
"Daesh [IS] are carrying out all these attacks
They want to wipe our people out." As a sign of how desperate people in the area now are he shows me elaborately embroidered quilts stitched
by mothers to hand down to their children, but sold off to pay for the cost of travel
Pointing to a set of saucepans, he says they were wedding gifts given to a newly-married couple that recently left the country
Many in the community blame the government for not doing enough to prevent the attacks
But Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish told the TheIndianSubcontinent the authorities regularly thwart plots."We recently stopped four
attacks in the west of Kabul
That shows how effective our security forces are." Image caption
Students have returned to class in a new building
Outside the mosques in Dasht-e-Barchi armed volunteers stand guard, some with weapons provided by the government
Many here say they feel afraid every time they are in a public space
But the students of the tuition centre are back in the classroom, in a new building
The attack weighs heavy on everyone's mind but there's also a sense of defiance
"I was so scared after the attack, it's hard to get over it," says 19-year-old Leylu Rasuli
"But if I don't study I won't achieve anything
and studying we will defeat the terrorists." A few weeks after the attack on the students, twin suicide bombings at a nearby wrestling club
killed at least 20 people
Since then there have been no further blasts in Dasht-e-Barchi, but residents remain fearful
On 11 November, six people were killed in an IS attack on a Shia-led protest near the presidential palace in central Kabul
At the tuition centre sandbags line the windows and armed guards watch over the students as they head home
This is a community braced for further violence
