Terrorist ISIL kidnaps 20 Shia Muslims in Afghanistan

Terrorists with the Takfiri group of Daesh have abducted 20 Shias from the Hazara community from a highway linking the Afghan capital, Kabul, to the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, Press TV reports.

The kidnapping took place on Saturday, with Afghan officials saying that the victims had been taken away from the bus they were travelling in at gunpoint.

The abduction has sent shockwaves throughout the whole Hazara community. Officials have also launched a massive operation to locate and release the hostages.

Earlier in the month, the bodies of seven members – four men, two women, and a child – belonging to the mostly Shia community was found partially beheaded in the southeastern Afghan province of Zabul, sparking outrage across the country.

Taliban militants are suspected to have killed the seven, who had been kidnapped in the neighboring Ghazni Province nearly six months earlier.

The deaths prompted an estimated crowd of 10,000 to march on the presidential palace in Kabul on November 11 protesting insecurity throughout the country.