Asia

At least 48 Shia Muslim students martyred in Kabul suicide bombing

A suicide bomber killed at least 48 Shia Muslim students preparing for university exams in a Shia neighbourhood of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, in an attack blamed on Saudi coreligionist Wahhabis-allied Daesh takfiri terrorist group.

The Public Health Ministry said at least 67 people were also wounded in the attack, which struck a private building in the predominately Shia Dasht-i Barcha area of the capital.
The explosion initially set off gunfire from Afghan guards in the area, leading to assumptions there were more attackers involved, but officials later said all indications were there was only one bomber.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the “terrorist” attack that “martyred and wounded the innocent” and ordered an investigation into the killings.
“By targeting educational and cultural centres, terrorists have clearly shown they are against all those Islamic principles [that strive] for both men and women to learn and study,” Ghani said in a statement.
‘Blood everywhere’
A spokesperson for the public health ministry, Wahid Majroh, said 67 people were also wounded in the bombing and that the death toll — which steadily rose in the immediate aftermath of the attack — could rise further. He did not say if all the victims were students or whether any of their teachers were among the casualties.
Dawlat Hossain, father of 18-year-old student Fareba who had left her class just a few minutes before the bombing but was still inside the compound, was on his way to meet his daughter and started running when he heard the explosion.
Hossain recounted to The Associated Press he saw parts of human bodies all over student desks and benches`upon entering Fareba’s classroom,.
“There was blood everywhere, all over the room, so scary and horrible,” he said. After finding out that his daughter was safe, he helped move the wounded to hospitals.
Fareba was traumatized that so many of her friends were killed, but Hossain said she was lucky to be alive.
The explosion initially set off gunfire from Afghan guards in the area, leading to assumptions that there were more attackers involved, but officials later said all indications were that there was only one bomber.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Jawad Ghawari, a member of the city’s Shia clerical council, blamed the Daesh terrorist group, which has carried similar attacks in the past, hitting mosques, schools and cultural centres.
In the past two years, Ghawari said there were at least 13 attacks on the Shia community in Kabul alone.
Abdul Hossain Hossainzada, a Shia community leader in the western Kabul neighbourhood, said the bomber apparently targeted the course, which had young men and women studying together.
Both the resurgent Taliban and the Daesh affiliate in Afghanistan target Shia Muslims, considering them non-Muslims, according to AP report. However, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, denied any involvement by the group in the Kabul attack.

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