Terror fails to divide Herat’s communities amid extremist attacks

Following a terrorist attack on Shia Muslims in the Injil district of Herat province, Sunni and Shia communities reaffirmed their unity against extremist groups.

More than ten thousand Sunnis and Shias attended the April 14 funeral, chanting against terrorists and calling extremist groups enemies of Islam.

The April 10 attack, not yet claimed, involved four armed men who killed 12 civilians, including two women and one child, and injured seven others.

The victims had been visiting a shrine in Deh Mehri village and while having lunch, they were attacked by armed extremists.

"Terrorists want to create division between Shia and Sunni through such attacks and destabilize Afghanistan," Abbas Alizada, 61, who lost four family members, told Salaam Times.

The enemies cannot do anything because we are all Shia and Sunni, neighbors and relatives, he said.

"No matter what the enemy does, even if they martyr hundreds more people, they cannot create division between us and our Sunni brothers," Alizada said.

Exploiting sectarian divisions

Terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda and the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), have spent years targeting Shia civilians in Herat.

Their strategy aims to create mistrust between Sunni and Shia communities through repeated violence.

They attempt to turn shared suffering into sectarian conflict, but these efforts have largely failed.

Community members say such attacks have instead strengthened unity and solidarity across sectarian lines in the community.

Muhammad Zahir Ahmadi, 58, a Herat resident who attended the funeral, said extremists have failed to divide the population.

"These terrorists have so far failed to create division between Shia and Sunni Muslims in Herat province, and they will not succeed in the future either. They will take this false dream to their graves," he said.

"The enemy cannot separate these people from each other," said another resident Ghulam Rasouli Haidari, 26.

Rejection of extremist legacy

Despite repeated attacks, Sunni and Shia communities in Herat continue to respond with strong collective resilience and unity against extremist violence.

Afghans say this solidarity remains their strongest defense against terrorism, emphasizing mutual cooperation rather than allowing fear to divide them or weaken social bonds.

Many residents and families of victims frame the violence as part of a wider historical pattern in Afghanistan, shaped by decades of al-Qaeda's extremist ideology.

They link this pattern to the ideological legacy of al-Qaeda and its role in fueling sectarian violence, fragmentation, and long-term instability across the country.

Communities emphasize that Herat has firmly rejected this legacy through sustained unity and shared resistance to intimidation and violence.