Tarana
Akbari, 12, screams in fear moments after a suicide bomber detonated a bomb
in a crowd at the Abul Fazel Shrine in Kabul on December 06, 2011. 'When I could stand up, I saw
that everybody was around me on the ground, really bloody. I was really,
really scared,' said the Tarana, whose name means 'melody' in English. Out of
17 women and children from her family who went to a riverside shrine in Kabul that day to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashura, seven
died including her seven-year-old brother Shoaib. More than 70 people lost
their lives in all, and at least nine other members of Tarana's family were
wounded. The blasts has prompted fears that Afghanistan could see the sort of sectarian violence that has
pitched Shiite against Sunni Muslims in Iraq and Pakistan. The attack was the deadliest strike on the capital in
three years. President Hamid Karzai said this was the first time insurgents
had struck on such an important religious day. The Taliban condemned the
attack, which some official viewed as sectarian. On the same day, a second
bomber attacked in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Karzai said on December 11 that a total of 80 people
were killed in both attacks. Published December 7, 2011
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