Shahjahan Sarwar
The Army Public School (APS), Peshawar massacre in 2014 took lives of 132 children and this time the terror strike on the 85 innocent Afghani schoolgirls in Western Afghanistan by the barbarians.
The warmonger terrorist group ISIS has accepted the responsibility of cowardly attack on school going girls. Afghanistan Ministry of External Affairs said that three blasts occurred near the school include a car bomb attack and two IED blasts planted in the area.
According to legend, ‘every war is war against children’. The changing landscape of Afghanistan after US President Joe Biden has announced the troops pullout from May 1, has significantly observed an uptick in violence. The warlords disguise themselves in ISIS and groups who have intensified attacks against men, women and children.
The recent bomb attack near Sayed Ul-Shuhada high school in Western Kabul has killed approximately 85 Afghan girls and injured over 150.
Everything is the same as before, the killings and the same dull rhetoric from the authorities, who vow to fight till justice is served but little is the confidence in the hollow claims by the Afghan authorities.
The Afghan Taliban released a statement after the gruesome attack on girls school, “Higher rank officials are defaming Mujahideens of Islamic Emirates and trying to exonerate the de facto culprit (ISIS), and stated that the attitude of Afghan officials show that ISIS is an intelligence tactics used by Kabul Administration for the acquisition of their uncountable goals”.
The Afghan Taliban alleged that ISIS is just a name that is being used for the larger strategic gains by the Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah led Afghan government.
The surge in the violence on Afghan soil is worrisome situations for all parties the United States, Afghan government, Afghan Taliban and Pakistan. On May 10, Pakistan COAS visited the Kabul and met the bigwigs of Kabul administration in the backdrop of sudden spike in violence that killed over 100 Afghan civilians.
The endless nasty game that is being played in the backdrop of the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan is also spewing terror and exposing the dark secret of those forces in the region who do not want the US pullout.
The families of innocent girls who perished in the attack are asking for the prevalence of peace in Afghanistan, despite the Afghan Peace Process agreement signed on February 28, 2020.
Students who died in the attack would be forgettable soon and their families would be served with merely ‘hollow justice’. It is the duty of super-power and the international bodies to maintain peace even if the US troops drawdown is happening that is due to complete on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 this year.
As per one think tank, “Why should girls in Afghanistan follow Saudi-Arabian dressing style in schools?” Perhaps, this might have exacerbated psychologically militant and extremist Afghani groups to attack, who detonated bombs on innocent children, without measuring the values of lives of the deceased.
The Afghanis are seeking respite now, after approximately 20 years of prolonged war , surely they don’t deserve genocidal attacks.
The school, being razed to grounds, can’t be a place for education, but turned into graveyard of the children. The U.S, China, Pakistan and other players have condemned the attack on schoolgirls.
Like APS, this horrific incident of Sayed Ul-Shuhada high would be remembered. May God be with the Afghan school girls who show great courage every day to get the education amidst the madness of war.
In a latest, despite the ceasefire from both sides, on the first day of Eid-al-Fitr, at the beginning of a 3-day ceasefire between the Taliban and Afghan forces, explosions in Kandahar and Kunduz provinces killed nine people and injured 17.
Two landmines exploded in Kandahar province–one in Panjwai and the other in Maiwand district–killing seven civilians and wounding three others.
According to Tolo news, a landmine blast, remote-controlled, in the town of Sardawra in the northern province of Kunduz, killed two people, including a child, and injured 14 others, most of them children.
The blast in the city of Kunduz occurred just hours after the Eid prayers in violation of ceasefire agreed from both sides.
A Kunduz resident told Tolo news: “The security forces arrived in the area 40 minutes after the accident occurred, while the Kunduz police headquarters is only 100 meters away from the incident area.”
“A Muslim does never oppress another Muslim in this way. We grow our children in poverty and miserable conditions, but they become victims very easily. If they (perpetrators) are Muslims, they should never commit such an atrocity against children,” said another resident of Kunduz province.
Officials in the Kunduz Provincial Hospital said the injured patients are in a critical state.
“Unfortunately, 16 people, who were injured and martyred in the explosion, were taken to the hospital,” said Fahim Hussainzada, a physician in Kundoz’s provincial hospital.
Meanwhile, in Kandahar province, two roadside mines exploded in Panjwai and Maiwand districts, killing seven civilians and wounding three others.
“At 9:30 a.m. today a landmine exploded on a taxi, carrying civilians, in Panjwai district. The mine was placed by the Taliban,” said Jamal Barakzai, spokesman for the Kandahar police chief.
In the past week, and before the government and the Taliban declared a 3-day ceasefire on Eid al-Fitr, more than a dozen provinces were witnessing heavy clashes between the fighters from the two sides.
Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Herat, and Balkh are the provinces that were least secure in the past week.
