The three Catalan tourists who were murdered in Afghanistan last Friday were part of an organized tour group. The deceased, according to Afghan media The Khorasan Diary, which cites official sources, and as EL PAÍS later confirmed through government sources, are Susana Vilar Bühler and her daughter Elena Schröder Vilar, both pharmacists from Barcelona. The other murdered Spanish tourist is Ramón Bellmás Rimbau, born in Girona. According to The Catalan newspaper, Rimbau worked as a manager at a chemical company. The other three dead are Afghans.
In addition to these fatalities, eight other people were injured, including a Spanish woman. According to the aforementioned Afghan media, it is María Celia Tamayo. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, Tamayo underwent surgery this morning [del sábado] in a hospital in Kabul, the capital. “He is conscious, stable, but in critical condition due to the gunshot wounds he sustained. We'll wait and hope it continues.” According to the British public broadcaster BBC, the injured also include citizens of Norway, Australia and Lithuania.
In total, the group of Spanish tourists consisted of eight people, two of whom remained unharmed and were able to leave the country this Sunday, according to diplomatic sources. Albares spoke to the latter two on Saturday morning, who confirmed this They are in Kabul and they are doing well, according to their department sources.
The two Catalan women had taken a few days' holiday and traveled to Afghanistan last Wednesday, where they were murdered two days later. Susana Vilar Bühler ran the pharmacy at Sants train station in Barcelona. “This morning the family sent a message to the pharmacy group to explain what happened,” a pharmacy employee told the Efe agency on Saturday. Vilar's daughter, Elena Schröder Vila, ran another pharmacy in the town of Terrassa together with her two sisters.
The Les Arenes de Terrassa pharmacy will be open this Saturday until shortly before 6 p.m., after which it was decided to close before normal hours. Three employees were present in sadness. The family explained what happened via WhatsApp, reports from Terrassa, Mar Rocabert. The mother, Susana Vilar, was the one who extended her profession as a pharmacist to her three daughters, who are in charge of one of the pharmacies in Terrassa.
They are loved in the neighborhood and considered very hardworking. This Saturday, pharmacy customers and neighbors emphasized their involvement in the neighborhood, which has a low income and has many single elderly people. To promote the health of the residents, they regularly organize activities, such as walking tours to La Mola, lectures on healthy eating or pilates sessions. They planned to actively participate in the community festivals that take place next weekend and usually bring essential pharmaceutical products to the elderly.
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“Everything indicates that it was an indiscriminate attack, but it is also clear that these types of attacks and attacks are very clearly aimed at European or Western citizens,” Albares said in statements to TVE's Canal 24 Horas, without wanting to go into details. The Public Prosecution Service, responsible for terrorism cases, has already opened an investigation to clarify what happened.
Although experts in the area point to the possible responsibility of the Islamic State of Greater Khorasan (ISKP), a local branch of ISIS, which is facing the Taliban regime, Albares declined to comment: “At the moment, no one has claimed responsibility for the action, but the mode operandIt makes me think it's an attack. But all this is just speculation for now.”
One of the survivors explained that they were shopping at an open-air market in Bamiyan on Friday when a person came out of an alley, walked up to them and started shooting. However, it cannot be ruled out that there was another shooter, as there was chaos. “It was very clear that it was coming towards them, so everything indicates that we are dealing with a terrorist attack or an attack. The target was this group of Western tourists,” Albares said.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry reported the arrest of seven suspected of involvement in the attack, the deadliest against foreigners since the Taliban regained power in Kabul in August 2021.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now working with the European Union Delegation in Kabul so that the repatriation of the bodies of the deceased – already in the offices of the Ministry of Justice in Kabul – can be carried out.” as quickly as possible.” possible”, in the words of the owner. “As for the injured, we are a little more in the hands of the doctors to know when this repatriation can be carried out and under what conditions. The goal is very clear: to produce it as quickly as possible,” he added.
The group of Spanish tourists included three Catalans – all three deceased – and three others from different parts of Spain, whose identities the Foreign Office did not want to reveal, citing respect for data protection and the families of those affected.
After the evacuation of Western troops, Spain moved its embassy in Kabul to Qatar, where the ambassador is now based, but the attack on tourists has forced a group of diplomats to move from Islamabad (Pakistan) and Doha to Afghanistan to help those affected. and assisting in the evacuation of the three dead, the injured and the two unharmed. The idea is for Spanish officials to remain in Afghanistan for as long as necessary until the arrangements are finalized.
“We have of course spoken to the families. Our priority, in addition to immediately helping the victims, was to contact the families and we have already been able to do that. We are also in contact with the authorities of the Generalitat about the Catalans,” the Spanish Foreign Minister explained.
The Foreign Office advises against traveling to Afghanistan
The presence of a group of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan has caused surprise in diplomatic circles, as the ministry's website clearly warns, and in capital letters on the recommendations for travel abroad, not to “travel to Afghanistan under any circumstances”, because “there is a risk of kidnapping or attack throughout the country.”
“They are not law, they are not mandatory, but very detailed information is collected about the security conditions of each country and in the case of Afghanistan, this has been advised against for a long time, since the evacuation of Kabul airport, travel under any circumstances due to the very high risk of attacks and kidnappings occurring throughout the country. There are no safe areas in Afghanistan,” the minister explained. Visibly upset, he added that “in the case of Afghanistan it is a little stranger. It is not necessary to read the travel advisories to understand the situation the country is in. Everyone remembers the dramatic situation we experienced when we evacuated all the Spaniards, our Afghan collaborators and hundreds of people in danger. To this day, we continue to do so discreetly,” he added.
“We expected something like this to happen and that is why we reflected this in our travel advisories and had to evacuate our colony, our Afghan staff and our embassy. That doesn't mean there is the slightest justification for it. It is scandalous,” concludes Albares.
While diplomatic sources warn that the trip's organizers may face civil liability, the minister has stressed that his department is “currently” focused on repatriating the deceased and uninjured and caring for the injured woman.
Spain does not recognize the Taliban regime diplomatically, but maintains contacts with the de facto government in Kabul to continue removing collaborators from the Spanish contingent that spent 20 years in Afghanistan and human rights defenders from the country, the Foreign Office said.