Claims on the internet that the Taliban have slaughtered more than 200 Christians in Afghanistan were quickly dismissed as “fake news” which has been circulating for more than four years.

There are scarcely any Christians in the country. Following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Pope St John Paul II established a Missio sui iuris there the following year, operating from the Our Lady of Divine Providence chapel of the Italian Embassy in Kabul, the only Catholic church and parish in the land and serving a flock of just 205 people among 27 million Muslims. Until the recent crisis, about a hundred attended Mass each week and they were overwhelmingly drawn from the international diplomatic community.