KABUL — At least 16 people were killed and 24 others
wounded Wednesday by a blast at a madrassa in Afghanistan’s northern city of
Aybak, a doctor at a local hospital told AFP.
اضافة اعلان
There have been dozens of blasts and attacks
targeting civilians since the Taliban returned to power in August last year,
most claimed by the local chapter of Daesh.
A doctor in Aybak, about 200km north of the capital
Kabul, said the casualties were mostly youngsters.
“All of them are children and ordinary people,” he
told AFP, asking not to be named.
A provincial official confirmed the blast at Al
Jihad madrassa, an Islamic religious school, but could not provide casualty
figures.
The Taliban, which frequently plays down casualty
figures, said 10 students had died and “many others” were injured.
“Our detective and security forces are working
quickly to identify the perpetrators of this unforgivable crime and punish them
for their actions,” tweeted Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafay Takor.
Images and video circulating on social media — which
could not immediately be verified — showed
Taliban fighters picking their way
through bodies strewn across the floor of a building.
Prayer mats, shattered glass and other debris
littered the scene.
Lull between blasts
The Aybak doctor said some
critically wounded patients had been moved to better-equipped hospitals in
Mazar-i-Sharif, which is about 120km away by road.
“Those who are here ... were mostly hurt by shrapnel
and blast waves. They had some shrapnel on their body and face,” he said.
Aybak is a small but ancient provincial capital that
came to prominence as a caravan stopping post for traders during the fourth and
fifth centuries when it was also an important Buddhist center.
There has been a lull of a few weeks between major
blasts targeting civilians in Afghanistan, although several Taliban fighters
have been killed in isolated attacks.
In September, at least 54 people — including 51
girls and young women — were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a device at
a hall in Kabul packed with hundreds of students sitting a practice test for
university admissions.
No group claimed responsibility for that bombing,
but the Taliban later blamed Daesh and said it had killed several ringleaders.
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 the neighborhood
No group claimed responsibility, but a year earlier
Daesh claimed a suicide attack on an educational center in the area that killed
24.
The Taliban’s return to power brought an end to
their insurgency, but Daesh continues to stage attacks across the country.
The Taliban movement — made up primarily of ethnic
Pashtuns — has pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on security
threats.
Amnesty International called the blast “disturbing”,
adding in a tweet it was “yet another reminder to the world that the sufferings
of Afghan people are far from over.”
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