Ahlul Bayt News Agency - Hundreds protest in Vienna capital of Austria against killing of 7 innocent Shia Hazaras in Afghanistan.
The murdered Shia Hazaras included four men, one woman and two girls. Some had their throats slit - it is not clear by whom.
Their bodies were found at the weekend in southern Zabul province where fighting between rival Taliban factions has escalated over the last few days.
Provincial officials initially blamed the killings on Islamic State militants, and there were unconfirmed reports that the perpetrators had been caught and summarily executed either by local residents or Taliban.
However, Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence agency rejected the reports as Taliban “propaganda”.
Separately on Tuesday, Afghan security forces freed eight Hazara, part of a group of 31 who were kidnapped from a bus several months ago, the NDS said in a statement.
Since the killings of the 1990s, the Taliban has largely avoided specifically targeting Hazaras or Shia Muslims, but the rise in the number of fighters claiming allegiance to the even more hardline Islamic State movement may change that.
