![Al Jahadia seminary in Aibak, Samangan province, is shown in this undated photo. [Social media]](/cnmi_st/images/2022/11/30/39173-Samangan-Aybak-seminary-739_416.webp)
KABUL -- At least 16 people were killed and 24 others wounded on Wednesday (November 30) by a blast at a madrassa in Aibak, the provincial capital of Samangan, AFP reported.
The casualties were mostly young individuals, said a physician in Aibak, some 200km north of Kabul.
"All of them are children and ordinary people," he told AFP, asking not to be named.
Precise casualty figures could not be determined at the confirmed blast at Al Jahadia madrassa.
Images and video circulating on social media -- which could not immediately be verified -- showed local authorities picking their way through bodies strewn across the floor of a building.
Prayer mats, shattered glass and other debris littered the scene.
Aibak is a small, ancient provincial capital that came to prominence as a caravan stopping post for traders during the fourth and fifth centuries when it was also a key Buddhist centre.
Frequent attacks concern public
Dozens of blasts and attacks have targeted civilians since August 2021, most of which have been claimed by the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS).
In September, at least 54 people -- including 51 girls and young women -- were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a device at a hall in Kabul packed with hundreds of students taking a practice test for university admissions.
No group claimed responsibility for that bombing, but Afghan authorities later blamed ISIS.
In May 2021, at least 85 people -- mainly girls -- were killed and about 300 were wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in the same Kabul neighbourhood.
No group claimed responsibility for that massacre, but in October 2020 ISIS claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the area that killed 24.
ISIS claimed responsibility for a September 5 suicide bombing near the Russian embassy in Kabul that killed two staff members from the diplomatic mission and four Afghan citizens.
The bomber struck near the entrance of the embassy's consular section.
Signs of the expanding presence and activities of ISIS in the western provinces, especially Herat, have stoked fear among the public, observers say.
Authorities on August 13 killed three suspected ISIS affiliates in a hideout in Herat city's third district. The suspects were reportedly planning a terrorist attack.
ISIS's shadow governor of Farah was killed in another clash in Farah city on August 14.
The deaths come after a suicide attack near the Gazar Gah mosque in Herat city on September 2 killed 18 civilians and wounded 23 others, AFP reported.
All Afghan children have the right to go to school and seminary without fear. Unfortunately, this right has been taken away from them under different names. This explosion has provoked reactions inside and outside the country. Maulvi Abdul Kabir, the political assistant of the Prime Minister, called this attack an unforgivable crime against all Islamic and humanitarian principles, while the Taliban have been doing these things for years. They blew up bridges, burned schools, and destroyed roads, but finally, today, they concluded that these are inhuman acts. Kabir Hakmal, a former spokesman of Afghanistan's National Security Council under the leadership of Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, then considered the Taliban to be the perpetrators of such attacks and wrote, "the Taliban will definitely answer before God for the creation of this evil culture, which has been carried out on madrassas and the attacks on the mosques were justified and the sanctity of these holy centers was violated. They used these important religious addresses for the purpose of terrorism, making bombs and human murders, and they are complicit in every attack."
Reply4 Comment
This deadly attack on the school of Aibak city, Samangan province is a crime against humanity. Innocent people have always been killed in these attacks. In 40 years, the innocent people of Afghanistan, who always need a loaf of bread, have been killed by unknown people. I do not understand at all why we Afghans are being killed. Afghans don't have chemical weapons, Afghans don't have tanks, Afghans don't have planes, why are we being killed? Our neighbors or powerful countries always attack our land. We Afghans did not attack anyone's land. We Afghans do not have enough weapons to defend even our land, and we are always get threatened by the powerful countries. In the 40 years of war, 80% of Afghans became uneducated, became homeless, and most Afghans are suffering from psychological diseases. Our enemies who kill us are not known. Who give weapons to our enemies and who support them? We Afghans are destroyed anymore. The explosion that took place in the city of Aibak of Samangan province killed our youth. This is a big grief. Our enemies are always getting supported by our neighbors, and no international organization criticized these countries.
Reply4 Comment
Pashto has a proverb that says, "as you sow, so shall you reap." They reap the flowers they have planted themselves for years and watered them. For 20 years, under the command of Pakistani intelligence and with the help of internal beasts, they killed Afghans in suicide attacks. The same tactics are used against them, and they are killed. It is a great sin to shed the blood of Afghans any time because Afghans are the people in the world whose Islam is more obvious than others, but I wish they were not victims of foreign conspiracies. I want even to know the sons and daughters of the poor were not killed, and this country did not deteriorate. Pity us.
Reply4 Comment
The Taliban take the crop that they have planted themselves. They were launching suicide attacks under the management of Pakistani intelligence, and now they get its victims. May God grant that the leaders of the Taliban and Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies be killed in suicide attacks because both sides are the murderers of thousands of Afghans killed in suicide attacks. Siraj, the leader of the H Network and the current interior minister, said that more than a thousand people had committed suicide attacks through his network alone. This was the network that the commander of American forces in Afghanistan once called the right arm of Pakistan's intelligence agency. And some time ago, Britain said that Siraj was not a terrorist but a modernist. Just chaos is going on. One does not know what game the regional and world intelligence have been playing.
Reply4 Comment