Girls’ high school blown up in Bamyan

BAMYAN CITY (PAN): Unidentified men blew up a girls’ high school in the Shibar district of central Bamyan province Thursday morning, officials said.

Much of the building in the Ghondak area of the district was destroyed by the blast, Director of Education Mohammad Raza told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The doors, windows and a wall of the school compound were destroyed, said the district chief, Mohammad Azim Farid. “The Taliban blew up the school to spread fear among students.”

But a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied they were involved in the attack and said the movement did not allow the destruction of schools.

“Such acts are carried out by the people who want to provoke the people against Taliban,” Mujahid added.

Raza said a team of officials from education and police departments had been sent to the scene to assess the extent of the damage and investigate the cause of the explosion.

About 350 girls are enrolled at the school, which is located 20 kilometres from the district centre.

According to figures from the provincial education department, Bamyan has 350 schools with 135,000 students and 3,400 teachers.  Half of the schools lack physical buildings.

President Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, strongly condemned the school’s destruction and called it a terrorist act, which was carried out by the elements who wanted to deprive the Afghan of their right to education.

A statement from his office quoted Karzai as saying: “The enemies of Afghans have been attacking schools, teachers and students over the past few years to keep Afghan away from education.”

myn/mxf/mud