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KABUL -Three girlsÂ’ schools have been attacked in Afghanistan in the past two days, officials said Wednesday, in the latest such incidents blamed on Taleban insurgents.
A girlsÂ’ school was torched close to midnight Tuesday in northern Badakhshan province, deputy provincial governor Mohammad Isa Atahi told AFP. Atahi did not blame the attack on any particular group.
Similar violence in the past has been blamed on the Islamic fundamentalist Taleban, which banned girls from attending school when it was in government from 1996 to 2001.
Late Monday suspected Taleban rebels tied up two watchmen at a girls’ school in northern Balkh province and set the building ablaze, a district police chief said. “Classrooms and the dean’s office were set on fire. This is the work of Taleban,” said Chimtal district police chief Mohammad Hashim Ahmadzai.
Also on Monday a girlsÂ’ school came under rocket attack in central Wardak province which adjoins the capital, said provincial spokesman Abdul Hafiz Salam. The attack caused no casualties since it occurred early in the morning but caused some damage.
The attacks were the latest in a string of strikes against educational institutes, schools, teachers and in some cases students in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been building schools with the help of the international community and persuading children to return to class. However of about 10 million school-age children, only 4.2 million attended school this year, according to a government report. |