http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/world/asia/kart-e-sakhi-attack-afghanistan.html 2016-10-11 20:48:47 Gunmen Attack Crowded Shiite Shrine in Kabul The attack came on the eve of Ashura, one of the most solemn holidays on the Shiite calendar. === KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen disguised as police officers attacked a Shiite shrine packed with hundreds of worshipers in the Afghan capital late Tuesday and may have taken hostages in a shootout that left at least five people dead and dozens wounded, officials and witnesses reported. The assault on the Kart-e-Sakhi shrine in western Kabul came on the eve of Ashura, one of the most solemn holidays in the Shiite calendar, commemorating the death of a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, said three gunmen had entered the shrine as people were preparing for the commemoration. He said that the police had shot one of the assailants and that “two others are still in the shrine.” Elite Afghan forces cordoned off the area, witnesses said. More than a dozen ambulances were at the site. Wahidullah Majrooh, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Health, said that the bodies of at least five people had been recovered and that 36 wounded had been transferred to Kabul hospitals. Sixteen of the wounded were women, Mr. Majroh said. Sayed Yousuf Hassani, a religious scholar who works at the shrine, said that the assailants were dressed in police uniform and that they opened fire indiscriminately. Jafar Rahimi, 25, a photographer who was at the shrine when gunfire began, described a state of panic. “We cut off the barbed wire to run away,” Mr. Rahimi said. “There was a child, 8 or 9 years old, who had a bullet wound in his hand. We rescued him with us. After we went out of shrine, we heard an explosion. The attackers were inside the shrine and police were outside.” While sectarian violence targeting the Shiite minority in neighboring Pakistan has increased, such assaults in But a series of recent attacks has raised concern. The predominantly Shiite Hazaras, one of Afghanistan’s largest ethnic minorities, have been repeatedly abducted from passenger buses in the south of the country. More recently, a bombing claimed by the Islamic State targeted a large protest of Shiite Hazaras, killing at least 80 people. Security had been heightened in advance at the shrine and officials said the government was aware of threats to the commemoration. At a meeting attended by President Ashraf Ghani to plan security measures for the event, the organizers were warned to make it low key this year, with fears that suicide bombers were roaming the city and the commemoration was among their targets. .