Photo by [NBC]
An explosion at a madrassa in the city of Aybak in Northern Afghanistan claimed the lives of 19 people and critically injured 26 more. The blast occurred while civilians and students were attending their afternoon prayer.
Though civilians were among the casualties of the explosion, BBC reported the majority of the victims were students of the Madrassa, aged between nine and 15.
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Responsibility for the Attacks
At this point, no claim has been made by any group for the attack. Professor Muhammed Khatibi believes the brutality of the attack could not have been done by any Muslim.
“Muslims will never do such a brutal [and] criminal act. [They would not] kill innocent children who are studying Islam”.
Professor Khatibi of Salam University in Afghanistan has reservations about who the perpetrators could be.
Majority of the attacks in Afghanistan have been claimed by varied terror groups. However, the US-led occupational forces have conducted similar attacks in various parts of the country in recent years.
Although the blast came from inside the premises, Professor Khatibi said he could not rule out the possibility of it being a drone strike.
The Motive
It is not the first time Mosques, secular and religious learning centres have been targeted by terror attacks in Afghanistan over the past year of Taliban rule.
Professor Khatibi said there is no indication of why this specific madrassa was targeted. Still, it is the first terror attack in the Samangan province.
In his opinion, ever since the Taliban seized control of the war-torn nation, life has been much better than it was during the occupation by western forces. He believes the motive is to destabilise the efforts and social projects being made in the country.
As such, terror groups and third parties are targeting various areas to create fear, unrest and division amongst sects in Afghanistan.
Professor Khatibi said, “After the coming of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan … Some schools were targeted in Kabul … There are third [party] forces that are trying to destabilise us”.
