Afghan ladies protest Hazara ‘genocide’ after Kabul bombing

Dozens of girls from Afghanistan’s minority Hazara neighborhood protested within the capital Saturday after a suicide bombing a day earlier killed 20 individuals — largely younger ladies from the ethnic group.

A bomber blew himself up on Friday at a Kabul examine corridor as a whole lot of pupils have been taking checks in preparation for college entrance exams within the metropolis’s Dasht-e-Barchi space.

The western neighbourhood is a predominantly Shiite Muslim enclave and residential to the minority Hazara neighborhood — a traditionally oppressed group that has been focused in a few of Afghanistan’s most brutal assaults in recent times.

Police mentioned not less than 20 individuals have been killed however the United Nations has put the quantity at 24.

On Saturday about 50 ladies chanted, “Stop Hazara genocide, it’s not a crime to be a Shiite”, as they marched previous a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi the place a number of victims of the assault have been being handled.

Dressed in black hijabs and headscarves, offended protesters carried banners that learn: “Stop killing Hazaras”, an AFP correspondent reported.

Witnesses have instructed AFP that the suicide attacker detonated within the ladies’s part of the gender-segregated corridor.

“Yesterday’s attack was against the Hazaras and Hazara girls,” protester Farzana Ahmadi, 19, instructed AFP.

“We demand a stop to this genocide. We staged the protest to demand our rights.”

Protesters later gathered in entrance of the hospital and chanted slogans as dozens of closely armed Taliban, some carrying rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, stored watch.

Since the hardline Taliban returned to energy final August, ladies’s protests have turn out to be dangerous, with quite a few demonstrators detained and rallies damaged up by Taliban forces firing pictures within the air.

No group has claimed accountability for Friday’s assault on the Kaaj Higher Educational Centre.

But the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group regards Shiites as heretics and has beforehand claimed assaults within the space concentrating on ladies, faculties and mosques.

The Taliban additionally regard the Hazara neighborhood as heathens, and rights teams usually accused the Islamists of concentrating on them throughout their 20-year insurgency towards the previous US-backed authorities.

Since returning to workplace the Taliban have pledged to guard minorities and clamp down on safety threats.

However, rights group Amnesty International mentioned Friday’s assault was “a shamefaced reminder of the inaptitude and utter failure of the Taliban, as de-facto authorities, to protect the people of Afghanistan”.

In May final 12 months, earlier than the Taliban’s return to energy, not less than 85 individuals — primarily ladies — have been killed and about 300 have been wounded when three bombs exploded close to their faculty in Dasht-e-Barchi.

No group once more claimed accountability, however a 12 months earlier IS claimed a suicide assault on an academic centre in the identical space that killed 24.

IS has emerged as a key safety problem for the Taliban, however officers declare their forces have defeated the jihadists.

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