United Nations raises Kabul classroom bombing death toll to 35 as women protest against ‘genocide’
- UN mission says there are at least 35 fatalities, with an additional 82 wounded; more than 20 of those killed were girls and women
- Dozens of women defy a Taliban ban on rallies to protest against the latest bloodshed in their community, carrying banners that read: ‘Stop killing Hazaras’
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On Friday a suicide attacker blew himself up in a Kabul study hall as hundreds of pupils were taking tests in preparation for university entrance exams in the city’s Dasht-e-Barchi area.
The western 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.
More than 20 of those killed were girls and women, it said.
The UN mission’s casualty figure is higher than the toll Kabul authorities have given.
An interior ministry official said anonymously on Saturday that 25 people were killed and 33 wounded in the attack on the Kaaj Higher Educational Centre – updating an earlier toll of 20 killed and 27 wounded.
Meanwhile on Saturday, dozens of Hazara women defied a Taliban ban on rallies to protest against the latest bloodshed in their community.
Around 50 women chanted, “Stop Hazara genocide, it’s not a crime to be a Shiite”, as they marched past a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi where several victims of the attack were being treated.
Dressed in black hijabs and headscarves, the protesters carried banners that read: “Stop killing Hazaras”.
Witnesses have said the suicide attacker detonated in the women’s section of the gender-segregated study hall.
“Yesterday’s attack was against the Hazaras and Hazara girls,” said protester Farzana Ahmadi, 19.
“We demand a stop to this genocide. We staged the protest to demand our rights.”
Protesters later gathered in front of the hospital and chanted slogans as dozens of heavily armed Taliban, some carrying rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, kept watch.
Since the hardline Taliban returned to power, women’s protests have become risky, with numerous demonstrators detained and rallies broken up by Taliban forces firing shots in the air.
No group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.
But the jihadist Islamic State (Isis) group regards Shiites as heretics and has previously claimed attacks in the area targeting girls, schools and mosques.
The Taliban also regard the Hazara community as heathens, and rights groups often accused the Islamists of targeting them during their 20-year insurgency against the former US-backed government.
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Suicide bomb blast kills 19 in Afghan capital
Since returning to office the Taliban have pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on security threats.
However, Amnesty International said Friday’s attack was “a shamefaced reminder of the inaptitude and utter failure of the Taliban, as de facto authorities, to protect the people of Afghanistan”.
In May last year, before the Taliban’s return to power, at least 85 people – mainly girls – were killed and about 300 were wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in Dasht-e-Barchi.
Again, no group claimed responsibility, but a year earlier Isis claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the same area that killed 24.
Isis has emerged as a key security challenge for the Taliban, but officials claim their forces have defeated the jihadists.
