Hazara School Targeted in Terrorist Bombing in Kabul

Date: 19 April 2022 - 22:58

News ID: ۱۰۱۸۳۷

KABUL (Dispatches) -- At least six people were killed and 11 wounded Tuesday by two bomb blasts at a boys’ school in the Afghan capital, with social media showing grisly images from the Hazara Shia neighborhood.
The number of bomb blasts in the country has significantly declined since the Taliban ousted the U.S.-backed Afghan government in August, but the terrorist Daesh group has claimed several attacks since then.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran told AFP that Tuesday’s blasts at the Abdul Rahim Shahid school were caused by improvised explosive devices and left at least six people killed and 11 wounded.
“These are preliminary figures. We are at the site and waiting for more details,” he said.
Zadran said a third blast had occurred at an English language centre in the same area, but did not specify whether it was caused by an explosive.
Zadran earlier tweeted that three blasts had rocked the school, which is in an area mainly inhabited by the Hazara community and has been previously targeted by the takfiri group.
Tuesday’s blasts occurred as students were coming out of their morning classes at the school, a witness told AFP.
Grisly images posted on social media networks showed several bodies lying at the gate and compound of the school.
Images showed patches of blood, burnt books and school bags scattered at the premises. Taliban fighters were seen cordoning off the area.
Victims were taken to hospital, but Taliban fighters kept journalists from the premises.
Attacks on public targets have largely diminished since the Taliban seized power in August last year, but Daesh continues to operate across the country.
The Taliban have also been blamed previously for attacks targeting the Hazara community, who make up between 10 to 20 percent of the country’s 38 million population.
Taliban officials insist their forces have defeated Daesh, but analysts say the takfiri group is a key security challenge to the hardline militants who now rule Afghanistan.
Since seizing power the Taliban have regularly carried out raids on suspected Daesh hideouts, mainly in the eastern Nangarhar province.
Daesh has claimed some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan in recent years.
In May last year at least 85 people -- mainly girl students -- were killed and about 300 were wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in Dasht-e-Barchi.
No group claimed responsibility, but in October 2020 IS claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the same area that killed 24, including students.
In May 2020, the group was blamed for a bloody attack on a maternity ward of a hospital in the neighborhood that killed 25 people, as well as new mothers.
Iran condemned the Tuesday bombing, urging the country’s officials to identify and punish the perpetrators behind the terrorist attack.
In a post on his Twitter account, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh lashed out at takfiri terrorists for committing another crime in Afghanistan and shedding the blood of innocent teenagers.
The “anti-religion” terrorists, he said, “did not even observe the sanctity of the holy month of Ramadan.”
The spokesperson called on Afghan officials to act immediately to identify the perpetrators of the crime and bring them to justice.