By: Sherin Yousfi
Seventeen-year-old Nazia stares at her books in the corner of the room as tears fall from her eyes. Her words can hardly be understood through her sobs.
Nazia is from Ghazni province and had travelled to Kabul with her roommates to prepare for the university entrance exam. They all went to Kaaj educational center on Friday for a practice test. Her roommates Malika and Fereshta were seated in the second row of the classroom when a suicide bomber struck. They were both killed in the explosion.
“I was completely numb and I did not understand whether I was on the ground or wandering in the sky,” Nazia said. “It’s a feeling that I can’t express with any words at all.”
Nazia told Rukhshana Media that the suicide bomber was wearing a military uniform and a mask. First, he opened fire on the hundreds of students in their seats. Then he threw a substance at the students that seemed to burn the skin.
“We were screaming. I don’t fully know what the suicide bomber was saying in Pashto, I just heard him saying, “Take it easy,” and a moment later the explosion happened,” Nazia said.
Nazia said many students had tried to take shelter under the benches when the shooting started. While many were killed in the explosion, others died or were injured by the roof that collapsed due to the intensity of the explosion.
“The sound of the explosion is still in my ears. When I got out from under the bench, there was blood everywhere. I saw a cut-off hand, a leg that was severed from the body. I was confused and I couldn’t hear anything,” she said.
Nazia’s saw the girl who had been sitting next to her. They had talked about what university major they wanted to choose.
“She didn’t have legs and she only had a pen in one hand. Her eyes were open, I see her gaze in my sleep as if she was smiling at me,” Nazia said.
“I didn’t even have a chance to ask her name.”
Most of the victims of Friday’s attack on the Kaaj education center in the west of Kabul were girls. The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan has put the casualties toll at 35 dead and 85 wounded.
But eyewitnesses like Sohaila, 18, say the number of those killed is more than what the Taliban officials and the media are reporting. Sohaila says she witnessed more than 50 bodies being transported.
“When I left the center, I remembered that my classmate Najiba was inside. I could not take a step and go home, so I went back to the class and looked for Najiba. There were feet, hands, and heads under every brick, and everywhere smelled of blood,” Sohaila said.
Sohaila had come to Kabul from Bamyan province where she has been living in a student room far from her family for two years.
A number of the survivors told Rukhshana Media that a day before the incident, the Taliban forces working for the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had come to the tuition center to evaluate female students’ hijab and had assured the students of “complete security”.
Eighteen-year-old Sharifa was injured in the explosion. She said that she managed to escape the classroom and saw what appeared to be Taliban forces shooting at students inside the alley outside the center. Despite having an injured right leg, she managed to escape by climbing the wall with several other girls.
“After the explosion, all the escape routes were blocked. I don’t understand why the Taliban forces were firing at us. Did they want to get the attacker or were they shooting at the students? I saw several people hit by those bullets and fall to the ground,” she said.
Meanwhile, one of the exam preparation teachers in west Kabul, who did not want to be named in the report due to security reasons, told Rukhshana Media that before the exam the Taliban had collected the weapons of the center’s guards.
“Before, each tuition center had about eight guns and about ten guards. The Taliban collected the weapons and ordered us to not have more than two or three guards. The Taliban told us they will provide the themselves,” the teacher said.
Since the deadly attack, the Taliban has shut down people sharing information, not updating media on the rising number of casualties and blocking reporters proper access to the incident. Some journalists were detained and interrogated by the Taliban for attempting to report on it. They were later released.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Some consider the Taliban to be behind the attack. But other commentators point to the Islamic State who have carried out similar attacks in the past.
On Saturday, several women in Kabul and other city centres marched in the streets to protest the attack. They carried placards and chanted “Stop Hazara genocide”, “Education, work, freedom”, “Death to ignorance, schools must be opened”, and “Stand with us”. But the protests have been dispersed by Taliban, some with live gunfire, and some protesters were beaten.
A campaign with the hashtag “#StopHazaraGenocide” has been launched by social media users on different platforms. Some also blame the Taliban for the attack.
“You were the initiator of great horror. When you called suicide attacks in markets, restaurants, and mosques “Jihad” and called them “sacred”. You taught children to kill. You shamelessly took pride in killing civilians such as journalists and judges. Your role in popularizing the culture of suicide cannot be forgotten or forgiven,” Shahrzad Akbar, the former chairperson of the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission tweeted.
Amnesty International said that the Taliban is completely failing to protect minorities. The UN Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called the incident an attack on Afghanistan’s future.
“Attacks on Hazara and Shia educational centers must stop,” he said.
