On 6 December 2011, as a part of the
2011 Afghanistan Ashura bombings, a suicide bomber killed an estimated 70 people, including women and children, at the mosque during an unprecedented wave of violence against minority Shi'ites in Afghanistan. The building was packed with people celebrating
Ashura, an important Shia Muslim holiday which marks the death of
Hussein, the grandson of the prophet
Muhammad, in the
battle of Karbala in Iraq in 680 CE. Other attacks took place on the same day at
Mazar-e-Sharif, killing four people, and in
Kandahar, where five people were injured. The fatalities were estimated to have totalled 74 people, with more than 160 people injured. The
Pakistan-based
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attacks. On 21 February 2023 the mosque-shrine complex was hit with a massive blast; however, there were no casualties. == See also ==