It was a dastardly prologue to Ramadan, verily a horrendous instance of an intra-religion conflict barely four days before Eid. A powerful explosion killed more than 50 worshippers after Friday prayers at a Kabul mosque, the latest in a series of attacks on civilian targets in Afghanistan during the Muslim holy month. The blast hit the Khalifa Sahib Mosque in the west of the capital in the early afternoon, said Besmullah Habib, deputy spokesman for the interior ministry, who said the officially confirmed death toll was 10. The downplaying of the tragedy is almost incredible. The incident happened as worshippers at the Sunni mosque gathered after Friday prayers for a congregation known as Zikr ~ an act of religious remembrance practised by some Muslims but seen as heretical by some hard-line Sunni groups. A health source said hospitals had received 66 bodies and 78 wounded people so far. 

The United States and the United Nations’ mission to Afghanistan condemned the attack, with the latter saying it was part of an uptick in violence in recent weeks and adding that at least two UN staff members and their families were in the mosque at the time of the attack. “No words are strong enough to condemn this despicable act,” said Mette Knudsen, the UN secretary-general’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan. The emergency hospital in downtown Kabul said it was treating 21 patients and two were dead on arrival. 

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A worker at another hospital treating attack patients said it had received 49 patients and around five bodies. Ten of the patients were in critical condition, the source added, and almost 20 had been admitted to the burns unit. A spokesman for the ruling Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, released a statement condemning the blast and saying the perpetrators would be found and punished. It was not immediately clear who was responsible. In recent weeks, scores of Afghan civilians have been killed in blasts, some of which have been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis). 

The Taliban say they have secured the country since taking power in August and largely eliminated the Islamic State’s local offshoot, but international officials and analysts say the risk of a resurgence in militancy remains. However, many of the attacks have targeted the Shi’ite minority; Sunni mosques have also been attacked. Bombs exploded aboard two passenger vans carrying Shi’ite Muslims in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday, killing at least nine people. Last Friday, a blast tore through a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers in the city of Kunduz, killing 33. The Taliban is clearly not in control of the country, and the ramifications of America’s follies in Afghanistan continue to haunt its people.