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Kabul: While the death toll The death toll in the Saturday car bomb attack in front of Sayed ul Shuhada school in the neighbourhood of Dasht-e-Barchi here reached 85, blasts continue to claim more lives in Afghanistan. While on Sunday a roadside bomb exploded in the southern province of Zabul, killing at least 25 persons and injuring dozens, on Monday a bomb blew up a minibus in Parwan Province, north of Kabul, killing at last two persons and injuring nine.
No group has taken responsibility of these explosions as yet. However, for the Kabul school blast in which many girls got killed and at least 147 were injured, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Taliban insurgents. However, Taliban denied its hand in the killings and Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid even went on to condemn the incident. The car bomb was detonated , and two more bombs exploded when students rushed out of the school in panic. Later on Sunday, On Sunday, the Taliban even went on to announce a three-day ceasefire through Eid al-Fitr.
It may be mentioned that ever since the start of peace negotiations in September 2020, violence has risen sharply. In February, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), and the UN Human Rights office in Kabul had stated that they remained concerned about the detrimental impact of the conflict on women and children, who together made up 43 per cent of all civilian casualties in 2020, including 1,146 women casualties (390 killed and 756 injured – 13 per cent of all civilian casualties) and 2,619 child casualties (760 killed and 1,859 injured – 30 per cent of all civilian casualties).
In March 2021, the United Nations Security council was warned about the the country slipping into “a period of great uncertainty”.
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The ongoing explosions paint an alarming picture against the backdrop of the United States’ announcement to withdraw all of its troops by September 11, 2021 – that would also mark 20 years of al Qaeda attacks on the United States. Even as the US has started the process of pulling out its troops from Afghanistan, the fighting between Afghan security forces and Talibans has even more intensified.
The school attack was condemned across the globe – from Pope to UN Secretary General included. The United States condemned the “barbarous attack near a girls’ school in Kabul, Afghanistan”. India too strongly condemned the blast and stated that targeting young girl students, makes this an attack on the future of Afghanistan. It came out with a statement that said: “The perpetrators clearly seek to destroy the painstaking and hard-won achievements that the Afghans have put in place over the last two decades.”
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres had stated that those responsible for this heinous crime must be held accountable.
– global bihari bureau
