Kabul (AFP) – The death toll of a suicide bombing on a Kabul classroom has risen to 35, the United Nations (UN) said yesterday as Shiite Hazara women who bore the brunt of the attack staged a defiant protest against the “genocide” of their minority community.
On Friday a suicide attacker blew himself up in a Kabul study hall as hundreds of pupils were taking tests in preparation for university entrance exams in the city’s Dasht-e-Barchi area.
“The latest casualty figures from the attack number at least 35 fatalities, with an additional 82 wounded,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement.
The UN mission’s casualty figure is much higher than the death toll Kabul police have given – they said 20 people were killed and 27 wounded in the assault on the Kaaj Higher Educational Centre.
Since returning to power last August, security has been a sensitive topic for the Taleban and the hardliners have often been keen to downplay attacks challenging their regime.
Meanwhile yesterday dozens of Hazara women defied a Taleban ban on rallies to protest the latest bloodshed in their community.
Around 50 women chanted, ‘Stop Hazara genocide, it’s not a crime to be a Shiite’, as they marched past a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi where several victims of the attack were being treated.
