KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber struck an schooling heart in a Shiite space of the Afghan capital on Friday, killing 19 individuals and wounding 27, together with youngsters who had been taking observe entry exams for college, a Taliban spokesman mentioned.
The morning explosion on the heart came about in Kabul’s Dashti Barchi neighborhood, an space populated principally by ethnic Hazaras, who belong to Afghanistan’s minority Shiite group. The Islamic State group has carried out repeated, horrific assaults on colleges, hospitals and mosques in Dashti Barchi and different Shiite areas lately.
Around 300 current highschool graduates, girls and boys, had come to the Kaaj Higher Educational Center at 6:30 a.m. to take observe exams, mentioned one survivor, 19-year-old Shafi Akbary. The facility helps college students put together and research for the doorway exams, amongst different actions.
About an hour into the session, the blast went off.
“First, we heard the sounds of a few gunshots at the main gate. Everyone was worried and tried to run to a different direction,” mentioned Akbary, talking to The Associated Press over the telephone. “Soon after that, a huge explosion occurred inside the center.”
Akbary, who was unhurt, mentioned he noticed dozens of our bodies and wounded individuals scattered round him. “I was so afraid and couldn’t even move myself to help them. Later, other people ran inside and took us out,” he added. Akhbary mentioned he has attended courses on the heart the previous six months
Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesman of the Kabul police who gave the casualty toll, mentioned college students had been among the many victims of the blast, however he didn’t specify what number of. He mentioned schooling facilities within the space might want to ask the Taliban for added safety after they host occasions with large gatherings like Friday’s examination prep.
Police have arrested a suspect who could have hyperlinks to the assault, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor mentioned later. He was unable to offer any updates on the casualties.
No one instantly claimed duty for the assault. But the Islamic State group, the chief rival of the Taliban, has been waging a marketing campaign of violence that has intensified because the Taliban took energy in Afghanistan in August 2021.
Afghanistan’s Hazaras, who’re principally Shiite Muslims, have been a frequent goal of the violence. In Dashti Barchi, IS carried out a 2020 assault on a maternity hospital that killed 24 individuals, together with new child infants and moms, and an assault on a college in 2021 that killed greater than 90, principally schoolgirls. The neighborhood sees frequent bombings of minibuses and, earlier this 12 months, a college and one other schooling heart had been hit close to concurrently, killing six.
Amnesty International’s South Asia campaigner, Samira Hamidi, mentioned Friday’s assault confirmed the “utter failure of the Taliban, as de-facto authorities, to guard the individuals of Afghanistan.
She mentioned the Taliban have taken few measures to guard the general public, particularly Shiites and Hazaras “Instead, their actions of omission and commission have only further aggravated the risk to the lives of the people of Afghanistan especially those belonging to ethnic and minority communities,” she mentioned.
The U.S. chargé d’affaires for Afghanistan, Karen Decker, condemned Friday’s assault in a tweet.
“Targeting a room full of students taking exams is shameful; all students should be able to pursue an education in peace & without fear,” she mentioned. “We hope for a swift recovery for the victims & we grieve with the families of the deceased.”
The United Nations youngsters’s company UNICEF mentioned it was appalled by Friday’s horrific assault. “Children and adolescents are not, and must never be, the target of violence,” it mentioned in a tweet.
Since seizing powet, the Taliban have banned most women past the sixth grade from attending faculty. But feminine highschool graduates from earlier years can go to school.
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Faiez reported from Islamabad.
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