Explosion at Kabul education centre injures 42 children

WEB DESK: An explosion at an education centre in Kabul injured at least 42 children on Monday, with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan calling for an investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The blast occurred on Monday evening in Dasht-e-Barchi, a densely populated neighbourhood in western Kabul that is predominantly home to members of Afghanistan’s Hazara and Shi’ite minority communities.

The area has repeatedly been targeted by Sunni Islamist militants, including Islamic State, in attacks that have killed and wounded large numbers of civilians.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the cause of Monday’s explosion.

A Kabul hospital that received at least 35 injured students said all of the patients were between the ages of 10 and 14.

“All the patients were suffering from shrapnel injuries, with at least three of them requiring surgical care,” Dejan Panic, Afghanistan Country Director for EMERGENCY hospital in Kabul, was quoted as saying in a statement.

The location of the explosion prompted concerns that the education centre may have been deliberately targeted.

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, condemned the incident as a “heinous attack” in a social media post.

The European Union’s mission in Afghanistan also condemned the incident, saying that deliberate attacks against children and education centres were unacceptable.

Dasht-e-Barchi has been repeatedly hit by deadly attacks in recent years, with civilians, students and members of the Shi’ite minority frequently among the victims.

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In May 2021, an attack near a school in the area killed at least 85 people and wounded hundreds more. The vast majority of those killed were girls and women.

In September 2022, a suicide bomber targeted a tutoring centre during a practice university entrance examination in the neighbourhood, killing at least 19 people. Many of the victims were young women and teenage girls.

The latest incident has renewed concerns over the safety of children and educational institutions in Kabul’s Hazara-populated areas, with the UN and international organisations calling for accountability and clarification of the circumstances surrounding the explosion.