Outsiders blamed for attacks on schools
Education ministry officials on Wednesday said elements outside the country were behind attacks on schools and staff in several Afghan provinces.
Reports say 40 schools have been closed in Ghazni, Nangarhar and Maidan Wardak provinces over the past 20 days due to threats . Another four schools were torched in Nangarhar.
On Tuesday, unknown gunmen killed six education department officials in southeastern Paktia province. Currently 528 schools remain closed in several provinces.
The ministry’s spokesman, Amanullah Iman, said outsiders were behind the closure of schools and that night letters had been circulated to several schools since the start of the current academic year.
Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, he said the Taliban denied circulating the night letters and blamed foreign intelligence workers. He said foreign elements had agents in the country who threatened teachers and students.
In some provinces, the official acknowledged, the Taliban were cooperating with the government and they even checked teachers’ attendance registers.
About the nature of the threats, he said they included closure of girls’ schools, introducing Taliban-era teaching methods and banning English subjects.
Iman said the schools closed in Ghazni and Nangarhar had been reopened with the help of locals and efforts to reopen another six schools in Maidan Wardak were ongoing.
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistani intelligence operatives had held a meeting with Taliban commander Qayyum Zakir, who had been told to attack schools across Afghanistan.
But political analyst, Wadir Safi, rejected the claim as unfounded. Another analyst, Mohammad Hassan Haqyar, accused Westerners of involvement in closing schools
He believed neighbouring countries did not want to see a developed Afghanistan, but Westerners wanted to show the world that security was yet to be restored in the country.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said they were not against education, arguing a large number of schools were operational in areas controlled by the Taliban fighters.
Afghan student on a teachers day party at school.
Young school girls in the Bamozai village of Paktia Province in Afghanistan.
Female graduates from 1960’s Kabul Afghanistan.
A young Afghan boy nervously attempts to recite and complete the phrase, “My name is ___” during class.
Wali Muhammad and other Afghan boys call out the letter their teacher points to during class at the Forward Operating Base Geronimo schoolhouse in Afghanistan, JAug. 8. Most of the kids who attend school are younger than the current war.
Children attend classes at a school in a village near Combat Outpost (COP) Sabari in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan, June 19, 2011
Children on their way to school - Badakhshan Afghanistan
Faizabad, Badakshan, Afghanistan.
A line of girls on their way to school. In Afghanistan most of the cities have limited number of schools which are mostly far away from students home.
Students in a Classroom - Afghanistan
Religious School
Hoosh Village, Balkab District, Sar-i-Pol Province, Afghanistan, January 2002
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