Afghan women chant 'stop Hazara genocide' after Kabul bombing

Women from Afghanistan's minority Hazara community have held a protest following a suicide bombing that took place in an educational center and killed more than 35 people Friday.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in the study hall of Kaj Education Center in Dasht-e-Barchi, a mainly Hazara neighborhood west of the Afghan capital Kabul.

The neighborhood is an area where most residents are Afghan Hazara Shiites, who have been the target of brutal suicide attacks by terrorist groups and Daesh in recent years.

The UN said Saturday the death toll had risen to 35. More than 20 of the killed were girls and women, it said.

"The latest casualty figures from the attack number at least 35 fatalities, with an additional 82 wounded," the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement. 

Suicide blast hits educational center in Kabul, killing dozens

A suicide attack has struck an educational center in the capital Kabul, leaving scores of casualties.

Afghan women gathered in front of a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi where some of the injured and victims of the attack are hospitalized, chanting, “Stop Hazara genocide, it’s not a crime to be a Shia.”

"Yesterday's attack was against the Hazaras and Hazara girls," protester Farzana Ahmadi, 19, told AFP. "We demand a stop to this genocide. We staged the protest to demand our rights."

Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack hours after the explosion in the center.

The Hazara community, the poorest of the country’s ethnic groups, accounts for about 22 percent of Afghanistan’s population. Its members have been targeted in several large-scale kidnappings and killings across Afghanistan in the past.

In May last year, at least 85 people – mainly girl students – were killed and about 300 wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in Dasht-e-Barchi.

In October 2020, Daesh admitted to attacking an educational center in the same area that killed 24 people, including students.

In May 2020, the group was blamed for a bloody attack on a maternity ward of a hospital in the same neighborhood that killed 25 people, including new mothers.

Daesh has a foothold in eastern and northern Afghanistan, particularly in Nangarhar, which is regarded as its base in the war-torn country. It has recently claimed responsibility for several attacks across Afghanistan.

Since returning to power, the Taliban have pledged to provide security for minority groups in Afghanistan. However, Amnesty International said Friday's attack is a reminder of the utter inability and failure of the Taliban to protect the lives of the people of this country.

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