Gunmen killed three Spanish tourists and an Afghan national in central Afghanistan on Friday, Taliban officials said, in the country’s first attack on tourists since the group took power in 2021. announced that an incident had occurred.
Four other foreigners and three Afghans were also wounded in the shooting in Bamiyan province, a region of quiet valleys, lakes and ancient ruins northwest of the capital Kabul.
Witnesses said the shooting occurred around 5:30 p.m., when at least one gunman opened fire on a group of tourists coming out of a bazaar in the provincial capital. Safiullah Raid, Bamyan province’s information chief, said the dead were Spanish nationals.
Officials said four people were arrested in connection with the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.
“The government strongly condemns this accident, expresses its deep feelings to the families of the victims and guarantees that all perpetrators are found and punished,” Interior Ministry Spokesman Abdul Mateen Qaani said in a statement. Stated.
The attack came as Taliban authorities sought to attract foreign tourists to Afghanistan in hopes of strengthening the country’s economy and revamping the government’s image on the international stage. Western officials have criticized the Taliban’s restrictions on women, and no country formally recognizes the Taliban government nearly three years after it took power.
Last month, Taliban officials opened a government-backed Institute of Tourism and Hospitality to build the country’s tourism infrastructure. Tourist operators also say the country is safe for foreigners, despite persistent threats from Islamic State groups in the region, which have carried out sporadic attacks in Afghanistan in recent years and sought to destabilize the government. trying to guarantee.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Afghanistan was part of the so-called “hippie trail” across Asia. Foreigners were drawn to the country’s rich natural landscape, centuries-old mosques, and ancient ruins. In Bamiyan, where Friday’s shootings occurred, there are remains of a giant 1,500-year-old Buddha statue carved into the side of a cliff that was largely destroyed in 2001 during the Taliban’s first government. The state is also home to the country’s first national park, Band-e-Amir, with its rugged mountains and deep blue lakes.
After the 1979 Soviet invasion and the violent decades that followed, Afghanistan’s tourism declined. But so did some foreign tourists after the US-led war ended in 2021 and relative calm returned to the country.
According to the Taliban Tourism Directorate in Kabul, nearly 700 foreign tourists visited the country in 2021. That number will increase to about 2,300 in 2022, and reached about 7,000 last year.
Friday’s deadly attack will likely be a setback for the government’s tourism efforts. Mohammad Saeed, director of the Kabul Tourism Directorate, said, “This incident may scare other tourists who are planning to come to Afghanistan.”
