KABUL —
The death toll of a suicide bombing on a
Kabul classroom has risen to 35, the
UN said Saturday, as Shiite Hazara women who bore the brunt of the attack
staged a defiant protest against the “genocide” of their minority community.
اضافة اعلان
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
Dashte-Barchi area.
The western
neighborhood 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 UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said
in a statement.
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 told AFP anonymously on Saturday that 25 people were killed
and 33 wounded in the attack on the Kaaj Higher Educational Center — updating
an earlier toll of 20 killed and 27 wounded.
Since returning to
power last August, security has been a sensitive topic for the Taliban and the
hardliners have often been keen to downplay attacks challenging their regime.
Meanwhile on
Saturday dozens of Hazara women defied a Taliban ban on rallies to protest 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 Dashte-Barchi
where several victims of the attack were being treated.
Witnesses have
told AFP that the suicide attacker detonated in the women’s section of the
gendersegregated study hall.
Protester Farzana
Ahmadi said the attack was “against the Hazaras and Hazara girls”.
“We demand a stop
to this genocide. We staged the protest to demand our rights,” she told AFP.
Regular target
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.
“Taliban urged to
safeguard rights of all Afghans and stop using weapons to prevent right of
peaceful protest,” the UN mission said on Twitter after the protest.
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 terrorist
Daesh group regards Shiites as heretics and has previously claimed attacks in
the area targeting girls, schools, and mosques.
The Taliban have
also been accused by rights groups of targeting the Hazaras during their
20-year insurgency against the former US-backed government.
Amnesty
International said Friday’s attack was “a shamefaced reminder of the inaptitude
and utter failure of the Taliban, as defacto authorities, to protect the people
of Afghanistan”.
Since returning to
office the Taliban have pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on
security threats.
“We promise to all our compatriots that we will do more to
bring the perpetrators of yesterday’s and similar attacks to justice,” the
foreign ministry said on Saturday after Friday’s attack drew widespread
international condemnation.
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