On October 1, 2022, Afghan women protest at a demonstration in Kabul asking for an end to the Hazara genocide – AFP
The number of people killed in the explosion that shook a Kabul classroom has increased to 35, the UN announced on Saturday. Meanwhile, women from the Shiite Hazara minority, who were the target of the attack, held a protest against what they called “genocide.”
A terrorist detonated himself on Friday while hundreds of students were taking entrance exams for institutions in Kabul’s Dasht al-Barashi district at the “Kaj Educational Center.”
Members of Afghanistan’s historically persecuted Hazara minority, which has been the target of some of the bloodiest attacks in recent years, live in the largely Shiite district west of the city.
And in a statement, the “United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)” stated that “the latest death toll from the strike has reached at least 35 dead and 82 wounded.” More than 20 of the dead, according to her, were women and girls.
The UN mission’s death toll is significantly higher than what the Kabul authorities have reported.
In response to an earlier death toll of 20 dead and 27 injured, an Interior Ministry official spoke to AFP under the condition of anonymity and confirmed that 25 people were murdered and 33 were injured in the attack.
Security has been a highly touchy subject for the Taliban since regaining control in August, and they have frequently attempted to minimise the attacks that put their authority in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, scores of Hazara women disobeyed a Taliban prohibition on protests on Saturday to voice their opposition to atrocities on the minority, particularly against women.
About 50 ladies marched in front of Dasht al-Barshi Hospital, where many of the attack victims were taken, while chanting, “Stop the genocide of the Hazaras, it is not a crime to be Shiite.”
Afghan women protest the “genocide” of the Hazara after an explosion in Kabul claimed the lives of 35 people.
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