Afgh anistan education centre attack toll h its 53

Kabul: forty-six girls and young women were among those killed in a suicide bombing on an Afghan education centre last week, the UN said on Monday as it announced the total death toll had risen to 53.

A suicide bomber blew himself up on Friday next to women at a gender-segregated study hall packed with hundreds of students siting a practice test for university admissions.

The atack happened in a Kabul neighbourhood home to the historically oppressed Shiite Muslim Hazara community, which has been subjected to some of the worst violence in the country’s recent history.

“Our human rights team continues documenting the crime: verifying facts & establishing reliable data to counter denial & revisionism,” the United Nations assistance mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) tweeted.

It raised the death toll from 43 to 53, adding that a further 110 had been wounded.

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, which have oten tried to play down atacks challenging their regime, have said 25 people were killed and 33 others wounded. No group has so far claimed responsibility, but Daesh group has carried out several deadly atacks in the same area targeting girls, schools and mosques.

Friday’s atack has triggered sporadic womenled protests in Kabul and some other cities.

Around 50 women chanted, “Stop Hazara genocide, it’s not a crime to be a Shiite”, as they marched on Saturday in the Dasht-e-barchi neighbourhood where the atack happened.

The rallies have been dispersed by Taliban forces oten firing shots into the air and beating protesters.

Afghanistan’s Hazaras have regularly faced atacks in the majority Sunni Muslim country.

They have been persecuted for decades, targeted by the Taliban during their insurgency against the former Us-backed government as well as by Daesh.

Education is a flashpoint issue in Afghanistan, with the Taliban blocking many girls from returning to secondary education, while IS also stands against the education of women and girls.