KABUL - The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament on Monday asked the government to take essential steps to ensure the safety and release of 31 kidnapped Hazara pessengers from their captors, saying the abduction was aimed at fueling sectarian tension.

The individuals were returning from Iran and travelling by buses on the road between western Herat province and Kabul when they were kidnapped by masked gunmen believed to be members of the so-called Islamic State group.

The abduction took place in the Shajoy district of southern Zabul province on the Kabul-Kandahar road on Feb. 25. 

Local officials and residents of southern Ghazni province said some of the kidnapped men had been brought there from Zabul.

“The individuals were kidnapped to spark sectarian and ethnic violence in the country,” the Wolesi Jirga said in a statement.

It added the people of Afghanistan belonged to different ethnic groups and they had been historically living in peace with each other despite the civil war of the early 1990s.

The lower house urged the president, security bosses, tribal elders in Ghazni, Kandahar, Zabul and Helmand to take early steps for the release of the kidnapped men in order their families could get a sigh of relief.

The statement quoted Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi as hoping the Wolesi Jirga’s statement would have an impact on efforts at rescuing the abducted Afghans. (Pajhwok)