Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: A number of unknown armed men have torched at least 12 mosques in the past week in northern Baghlan province, local officials said on Wednesday.
TOLOnews quoted Abdul Rasheed Bashir, the acting police chief of Baghlan, as saying that the Taliban militants had hand in the incidents.
He said that the Taliban set 12 mosques on fire over the past one week.
Officials said most of these mosques were torched in Dand-e-Ghori area in Pul-e-Khumri city, the provincial capital.
The locals said however that they were too afraid to speak out against those behind the fires.
Abdul Rasheed Nadim, head of Baghlan’s Hajj and Religious Affairs Department, confirmed in an interview with TOLOnews that a number of copies of the Holy Qur’an and other religious books were also burned in the incidents.
He said the mosques were torched in the areas under control of the Taliban, adding that it may turn into a culture if the government doesn’t prevent it.
Baghlan residents termed the act un-Islamic and demanded the government act to arrest the perpetrators and for justice to be served.
They said mosque is a sacred place for worshipping Allah and it is obligatory on all Muslims to respect the places.
They said that those who had set the mosques on fire had no knowledge of Islam.
