The Islamic State Khorasan Province, or IS-K, said it was behind a gun attack that killed 10 people at a Sufi shrine in northern Afghanistan, according to Arab News. The report said the claim came days after the shooting, which Afghan officials described as taking place during a weekly ritual in Baghlan province.
Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Matin Qani said a gunman opened fire on worshippers taking part in the gathering at a shrine in Nahrin district. Arab News said the victims had assembled at the Sayed Pasha Agha shrine, where they were chanting when the shooting began. A local resident quoted in the report said the bodies were found the following morning when people returned for prayers.
The attack fits a pattern that Afghan officials and rights advocates have repeatedly warned about. The report said Taliban authorities in Kabul have said for some time that they had defeated IS-K, but the group continues to claim attacks, especially against Sufi and Shiite communities that it considers heretical. In this case, the target was a Sufi shrine, making the strike part of a wider campaign of intimidation against religious minorities.
The death toll was confirmed in the report as 10. The article did not describe additional injuries, and it did not say whether all of the victims were killed instantly or whether some died later. Even with those limits, the account made clear that the violence was deliberate and aimed at worshippers gathered for a routine religious event rather than at an armed target.
The report also quoted the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, who said religious minorities remained under grave threat and called for more prevention, protection and justice. That response underlined the broader consequences of the attack: not only the immediate loss of life in Baghlan, but a continuing signal to vulnerable communities that places of worship remain at risk.
Arab News said the attack occurred in a remote area of Nahrin district and that the bodies were discovered when worshippers came back for morning prayers. That sequence suggests the attack happened with little immediate warning and left the shrine community to discover the scale of the violence only after the fact. In a country where sectarian and anti-minority attacks have recurred despite official reassurances, the incident adds to the sense that the threat environment remains unresolved.
IS-K's attack on a shrine fits its broader target set, but the article does not need to go beyond the facts in the report to show why the case matters. Worshippers gathered for a weekly ritual; by morning, bodies had to be discovered at a site that should have been safe. That sequence leaves little room for ambiguity about intent. The Taliban's claim that IS-K has been defeated sits uneasily beside another successful attack, and the warning from the UN rapporteur suggests that protection, not rhetoric, remains the issue.
The report's most striking detail is the overnight gap between the shooting and the discovery of the bodies. That suggests a community that had no chance to respond in real time. It also explains why attacks on worshippers carry such force: the violence is meant to strike during moments of prayer, then linger into the next morning as grief and fear.
