Students at a public school and an educational center in western Kabul were targeted by bomb blasts. The attacks took place this morning, Tuesday, April 19 in the Dasht-e- Barchi area.
reports indicate that three simultaneous explosions at the Abdul Rahim Shahid school killed 30 teenage students and injured 43 others. The condition of some of the injured is said to be critical.
The first explosion took place in front of the school’s exit gate at 9:30 AM, while the tenth-grade students were departing. the second explosion happened 10 minutes after the first, in an alley behind the school as students were passing by, and the third attack took place inside the school. Local sources say the death toll is much higher than what has been reported by the media.
With 18 thousand pupils, Abdul Rahim Shahid High School is one of Afghanistan’s largest schools, located in Dashti-e-Barchi, the western section of Kabul.
Abdul Rahim Shahid High School is situated in the Dashti-e- Barchi western part of Kabul, and is one of the largest schools in Afghanistan, with 18 thousand students.
Dashti-e- Barchi which 95 percent of its population are Hazaras, has already seen many deadly attacks. A year ago, more than 200 female students were killed and injured in a horrific explosion at the Sayyid al-Shuhada School, a girls’ school in western Kabul.
Moreover, today when the reporters went to the scene to cover the explosion, the Taliban forces did not allow reporters to report and film, they even confiscated their equipment and cameras and even arrested some journalists.
Soon after today’s explosion reporters went to the scene to cover the explosion, but the Taliban forces did not allow reporters to report and film, they even confiscated their equipment and cameras and even arrested some journalists.
Also, families of injured students who came to see their loved ones in the hospital were turned away. According to sources, Taliban fighters first prevented the victims’ families from entering the hospital, then opened fire on them. “I arrived to donate blood, but the Taliban refused and threatened to kill me,” said Reza Ebrahimi, a relative of a student who was hurt.
An eyewitness says “the Taliban dumped the dead bodies inside a container, and families of the victims come and search for their children inside the container”.
Before the three explosions at the Abdul Rahim Shahid School this morning, another explosion occurred at the Mumtaz Educational Center, Qala-e-Naw-Barchi. The blast killed at least six students and injured 12 others. Mumtaz educational center in the west of Kabul was operating to get the student ready for the entrance exam.
Mumtaz Educational Center has a long history in the field of education. The exact number of students in this educational center is not available, but it is said that more than 1200 students are studying in this center. and today’s attack happened inside one of its classrooms.
Sources in the area say that after the explosion in this educational center, Taliban members arrested some of the teachers and some of the students in the center and took them away.
so far, no groups have claimed the responsibility for the attack.
