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Kabul suicide blast kills 19, mostly girls, at education centre

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Kabul suicide blast kills 19, mostly girls, at education centre

AFP
September 30, 2022


<p>Taliban fighters (C) stand guard as people gather to search for relatives outside a hospital in Kabul on September 30. — AFP</p>

Taliban fighters (C) stand guard as people gather to search for relatives outside a hospital in Kabul on September 30. — AFP
A suicide bomb attack on a classroom of hundreds of people preparing for exams in the Afghan capital on Friday killed at least 19 people, with most of the casualties girls, police and a witness said.

The blast ripped through Kaaj Higher Educational Center, which coaches mainly adult men and women ahead of university entrance tests.

“We were around 600 in the class. But most of the casualties are among the girls,” Akbar, a student who was wounded in the attack, told AFP from a nearby hospital.

The attack happened in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of western Kabul, a predominantly Shiite Muslim area home to the minority Hazara community, the target of some of Afghanistan’s most deadly attacks.

“Students were preparing for an exam when a suicide bomber struck at this educational centre. Unfortunately, 19 people have been martyred and 27 others wounded,” Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said.

Families rushed to area hospitals, where ambulances were arriving with victims and lists of those confirmed dead and wounded were posted on the walls.

“We didn’t find her here,” a distressed woman looking for her sister at one of the hospitals told AFP. “She was 19 years old. We are calling her but she’s not responding.”

A woman arrives on a motorbike to search for a relative at a hospital in Kabul on September 30, 2022 after a blast at a learning centre in the Dasht-e-Barchi area of Afghanistan’s capital. — AFP


A woman arrives on a motorbike to search for a relative at a hospital in Kabul on September 30, 2022 after a blast at a learning centre in the Dasht-e-Barchi area of Afghanistan’s capital. — AFP

At at least one hospital, the Taliban forced families of victims to leave the site, fearing that there could be a follow-up attack on the crowd.

Videos posted online and photos published by local media showed bloodied victims being carried away from the scene.

“Security teams have reached the site, the nature of the attack and the details of the casualties will be released later,” Abdul Nafy Takor, the interior ministry’s spokesman, earlier tweeted.

“Attacking civilian targets proves the enemy’s inhuman cruelty and lack of moral standards.”

Pakistan urges international community not to let its guard down​

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the attack in a series of tweets later in the day calling it “sheer barbarism”. He extended Pakistan’s “deepest condolences and most sincere sympathies to the bereaved families and people of Afghanistan”.

Shehbaz said that terrorism continued to threaten not just Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also the world.

“The international community should not let its guard down. Strengthening global cooperation against changing threat matrix of terrorism is the need of the hour,” he added.

Frequently attacked neighbourhood​

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last year brought an end to the two-decade war and a significant reduction in violence, but security has begun to deteriorate in recent months.

Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazaras have faced persecution for decades, with the Taliban accused of abuses against the group when they first ruled from 1996 to 2001.

Such accusations picked up again after they swept back to power.

Hazaras are also the frequent target of attacks by the Taliban’s enemy, the Islamic State group. Both consider them heretics.

Many attacks have devastated the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood, with several targeting women, children and schools.

Last year, before the Taliban returned to power, at least 85 people — mainly girl students — were killed and about 300 wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in the area.

No group claimed responsibility, but a year earlier IS claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the same neighbourhood that killed 24, including students.

In May 2020, the group was blamed for a bloody gun attack on a maternity ward of a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi that killed 25 people, including new mothers.

And in April this year, two deadly bomb blasts at separate education centres in the area killed six people and wounded at least 20 others.

Education is a flashpoint issue in Afghanistan, with the Taliban blocking many girls from returning to secondary education, while the Islamic State also stands against the education of women and girls.




 
Damn, that's so sad. Recently i saw a vlog by an Indian vlogger who visited Kandahar & Kabul quite close to the blast site. People were looking very positive and he was praising how good and peaceful the atmosphere is under the Taliban compared to the previous time he visited Afghanistan. The only negative he spoke about was the stance of Taliban towards women's education.
 
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Kabul blast kills teenagers sitting practice exam​


A suicide attack at a tuition centre in the Afghan capital Kabul has killed at least 19 people, most of them female students, police and witnesses say.

Nearly 30 others were wounded at the Kaaj education centre in the Dasht-e-Barchi area in the west of the city.

Students had been sitting a practice university exam when the bomber struck. No group has yet claimed the attack.

Many of those in the area are minority Hazaras, who have often been targeted by Islamic State (IS) militants.

Footage on local TV and shared on social media appeared to show scenes from a nearby hospital, where rows of covered bodies were laid out on the floor. Other media reportedly from the site of the private college showed rubble and upturned tables in the damaged classrooms.

"We didn't find her here," a woman who was looking for her sister at one of the hospitals told AFP news agency. "She was 19 years old."

Some reports say the number of dead is far higher than Taliban officials have acknowledged.

The attacker is reported to have shot at the guards outside the centre, entered a classroom and detonated a bomb.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that most of the victims were girls - they were seated in the front row, near the blast. A student who was wounded told AFP that there were around 600 people in the room when the attack happened.


Young man at hospital after the attack

Friends and relatives have been looking for their loved ones in hospitals in the capital

The Kaaj tuition centre is a private college which teaches both male and female students. Most girls' schools in the country have been closed since the Taliban returned to power in August last year, but some private schools are open.

Hazaras, most of whom are Shia Muslims, are Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group. They have long faced persecution from the regional affiliate of Islamic State (ISKP) and the Taliban, which both adhere to Sunni Islam.

On Friday the Taliban's interior ministry spokesman said security teams were at the site and condemned the attack.

Abdul Nafy Takor said attacking civilian targets "proves the enemy's inhuman cruelty and lack of moral standards".

The attack was also strongly condemned by the United Nations and the US.

"Targeting a room full of students taking exams is shameful; all students should be able to pursue an education in peace and without fear," said Karen Decker, charge d'affaires at the US mission to Afghanistan, in a tweet.


Kabul map

The security situation in Afghanistan, which had improved after the end of fighting following the Taliban takeover, has been deteriorating in recent months, with a number of attacks on civilians but also Taliban supporters. Some have been claimed by IS, which is a bitter rival of the Taliban.

Schools and hospitals have been targeted in the Dasht-e-Barchi area in a series of attacks, most of which are thought to have been the work of IS.

Last year - before the Taliban returned to power - a bomb attack on a girls school in Dasht-e-Barchi killed at least 85 people, mainly students, and wounded hundreds more.
 
Damn, that's so sad. Recently i saw a vlog by an Indian vlogger who visited Kandahar & Kabul quite close to the blast site. People were looking very positive and he was praising how good and peaceful the atmosphere is under the Taliban compared to the previous time he visited Afghanistan. The only negative he spoke about was the stance of Taliban towards women's education.
Majority of Afghans support sharia laws, stoning, and have hatred and malice for anything non Muslim. So "peaceful" and "positive" those lovely Afghans are eh?

America's biggest blunder was not turning that desolate hellhole into a glass parking lot instead of blowing billions of taxpayer dollars for "aid" in their absolute failure of a fight against the Taliban. Would have been much more cheaper and effective.

Let's not waste time worrying about afghans, garbage people
The dead were Hazaras, who are despised by the majority of Afghans so our sympathies should be for them. They are not backwards savages like the rest
 
Majority of Afghans support sharia laws, stoning, and have hatred and malice for anything non Muslim. So "peaceful" and "positive" those lovely Afghans are eh?

Well, to his defence, he was a non-Muslim tourist and visiting Kabul which I assume is much more progressive than the countryside. He did say about the attacks that the Hazara community faced from terrorists and even visited one of the Hazara mosques that was attacked by a suicide bomber in the past.
 
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Suicide bomb attack on an education center in Kabul has killed at least 25 people, most of whom are believed to be young women, in the latest sign of the deteriorating security situation in the Afghan capital.

The explosion took place on Friday at the Kaaj education center, in a predominantly Hazara neighborhood – an ethnic minority group that has long faced oppression.

Students were taking a practice university entrance exam at 7:30 a.m., local time (11 p.m. ET) when the blast first took place, Kabul Police Spokesman Khalid Zadran told CNN.

In addition to those killed, at least 56 people were injured, according to reports from hospitals.

The humanitarian organization EMERGENCY said their surgical center received 22 patients, including 20 women, according to a statement by the group Friday. Two of those patients have died.

“The victims are all between 18 and 25 years old, and most of them were in the classroom to take an exam. One person was already dead on arrival and another died after being admitted,” the statement said.

Earlier, Abdu Ghayas Momand, a doctor from Ali Jinnah Hospital, said at least 23 people had been killed and 36 others injured and received by his facility.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

Taiba Mehtarkhil, an eyewitness, told CNN many of the casualties were young women. She had gone to the center to look for her friend after she heard news of the attack and was confronted with scenes of chaos and despair, she said.

“I saw parents, other members of the families of the Kaaj students, screaming and running up and down,” she said. “Some were trying to get emergency medical attention to their loved ones and some others were looking for their sons and daughters. I saw around 20 killed and many more wounded with my own eyes.”

Mehtarkhil’s friend survived the attack as she was running late and hadn’t reached the classroom when the blast occurred, she said.

Another eyewitness, a 20-year-old who did not want to be named for security reasons, told CNN she was about 20 steps from the gate when the explosion threw her to the ground.

“When I got inside, I saw many of my classmates in blood. I found out that the explosion had happened inside my classroom,” she said, through tears.

“I was in a state of shock. I was just screaming my friends’ names and searching for them. I found some of them alive, but not my closest friend who was 19, and the most intelligent girl in our class,” she said.

Her classroom is the largest in the center and normally fits about 500 male and female students, she said.

“It is horrible, I am still in shock, it feels like a nightmare. It killed many of my dearest friends and classmates. I want the world not to treat this as another news piece. I want the world to know the pain we are going through right now. I am totally devastated,” she said.
 
Majority of Afghans support sharia laws, stoning, and have hatred and malice for anything non Muslim. So "peaceful" and "positive" those lovely Afghans are eh?
Everything is not about religion. It's about politics and racism. Hazaras are descendants of Mongol soldiers starting with Genghis Khan and others. They have since mixed with Turkic and Iranic groups becoming mostly Shia and serving under Safavid and Durrani empires. Amazingly, they widely spoke Mongolian as late as 19th century (most still have Mongolian looks). That is when ideas of unbridled ethno-religious nationalism took hold and with it came violence and persecution against the community in late 19th century.
 
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The death toll from a suicide bombing of a classroom in Kabul has risen to at least 35, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan told AFP on Saturday.

On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a study hall in the Afghan capital’s western district of Dasht-e-Barchi as hundreds of pupils were taking tests in preparation for university entrance exams.

The neighbourhood is a predominantly Shiite Muslim enclave and home to the minority Hazara community – a historically oppressed group that has been targeted in some of Afghanistan’s most brutal attacks in recent years.

“The latest casualty figures from the attack number at least 35 fatalities, with an additional 82 wounded,” the mission said in a statement.

Kabul police have so far said that 20 people were killed and 27 others wounded.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack at the Kaaj Higher Educational Centre.

Frequently attacked neighbourhood​

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last year brought an end to the two-decade war and a significant reduction in violence, but security has begun to deteriorate in recent months.

Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazaras have faced persecution for decades, with the Taliban accused of abuses against the group when they first ruled from 1996 to 2001.

Such accusations picked up again after they swept back to power.

Hazaras are also the frequent target of attacks by the Taliban’s enemy, the Islamic State group. Both consider them heretics.

Many attacks have devastated the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood, with several targeting women, children and schools.

Last year, before the Taliban returned to power, at least 85 people — mainly girl students — were killed and about 300 wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in the area.

No group claimed responsibility, but a year earlier IS claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the same neighbourhood that killed 24, including students.

In May 2020, the group was blamed for a bloody gun attack on a maternity ward of a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi that killed 25 people, including new mothers.

And in April this year, two deadly bomb blasts at separate education centres in the area killed six people and wounded at least 20 others.

Education is a flashpoint issue in Afghanistan, with the Taliban blocking many girls from returning to secondary education, while the Islamic State also stands against the education of women and girls.
 
Majority of Afghans support sharia laws, stoning, and have hatred and malice for anything non Muslim. So "peaceful" and "positive" those lovely Afghans are eh?

America's biggest blunder was not turning that desolate hellhole into a glass parking lot instead of blowing billions of taxpayer dollars for "aid" in their absolute failure of a fight against the Taliban. Would have been much more cheaper and effective.


The dead were Hazaras, who are despised by the majority of Afghans so our sympathies should be for them. They are not backwards savages like the rest
Hazaras are specially hated by Pashtoons. Its not due to their shia religion but its their Mongol background. Mongols did terrible things wherever they went including the most horrific kind of rapes one can imagine.
Mongols conquered, subjugated and colonized Afghanistan for a long period contrary to what Afghans claim that they were never colonized.
This is something Afghans can still not get over and take it out on Hazaras. They must move on from this mindset. Hazaras living today are not responsible for what happened 1000 years ago.
 
Let's not waste time worrying about afghans, garbage people
humans are humans no matter what! and those were little girls they dont know jack shit about politics or how Lumber 1 ghulams destroyed their country!
 
Sad to see that Afghanistan cannot find peace no matter who takes charge of the country :undecided:
 
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KABUL: The death toll from a suicide bomb attack on an education centre in the Afghan capital last week has risen to at least 43, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said on Monday.

A suicide bomber blew himself up next to women at a gender-segregated study hall in a Kabul neighbourhood on Friday, home to the historically oppressed Shia Muslim Hazara community.

“Forty three killed. 83 wounded. Girls & young women were the main victims,” the UN mission said in a tweet, adding that casualties were expected to rise further.

The bomber detonated as hundreds of students were sitting a practice test ahead of an entrance exam for university admissions.
 

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