Dozens of girls buried after blast outside school in Afghanistan, Latest World News - The New Paper
World

Dozens of girls buried after blast outside school in Afghanistan

This article is more than 12 months old

KABUL: Dozens of young girls were being buried yesterday at a desolate hilltop cemetery in Kabul, a day after a secondary school was targeted in the bloodiest attack in Afghanistan in over a year.

A series of blasts outside the school during a peak holiday shopping period killed more than 60 people, mostly girl students, and wounded over 100 in Dasht-e-Barchi, a west Kabul suburb populated mostly by Hazara Shiites.

The government blamed the Taleban for the carnage, but the insurgents denied responsibility and issued a statement saying the nation needed to "safeguard and look after educational centres and institutions".

Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian said a car bomb detonated in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada girls' school last Saturday, and when the students rushed out in panic, two more devices exploded.

Residents in the area were shopping ahead of this week's Ramadan holiday.

Yesterday, relatives began burying the dead at a hilltop site known as Martyrs Cemetery, where victims of attacks against the Hazara community are laid to rest.

Hazaras are Shiite Muslims and considered heretic by extremist Sunnis. Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the Afghan population. - AFP

WORLD