Family members of victims killed or injured in back-to-back explosions in Kabul on Tuesday called on the government to detain and punish the perpetrators.
The families urged the Islamic Emirate to maintain security for schools and educational centers.
Meelad, a victim of the attack, was in the last year of school and he was preparing to pass the Kankor test (university entrance test) and aspired to become a doctor.
“After the explosion, I went near his school. I asked a man standing there about students in grade twelve, He replied they left school and we found my son,” Meelad’s mother said.
Meelad’s uncle said it was hard to recognize his body at Mohammad Ali Jinnah hospital due to the many injuries he had sustained. “The photos were published on social media, we saw a photo of his leg and found his body at the hospital,” said Abdul Wahab, Meelad’s uncle.
“He was my eldest son and our hope for the future. It was not time for him to leave us alone. He was martyred,” said Mohammad Hassan, Meelad’s father.
Eighteen-year-old Mahdi was studying in Abdul Raheem Shaheed, a school hit by the two blasts. Mahdi’s brother said that he received his body from a health facility.
“We were always waking him up for school and to go to the shop, but the morning of the incident he himself woke up and left home. No one saw him as he left,” said Nasrullah, Mahdi’s brother.
On Tuesday, multiple explosions hit Abdul Raheem Shaheed high school and an educational center in Dasht-e-Barche, in the west of Kabul city. Many students were killed or injured.
The families warned that they will not send their children to school unless there are full-proof security measures by the government to protect the school from similar attacks in the future.
They also called on the Afghan government to identify organizers of the attack and renew its security policy for the west of Kabul. “Any school you attack will be more crowded and any tuition center you attack will emerge more vibrant,” said Abdullah Fazli, member of Afghanistan’s Shia Religious Scholars Council.
“The government has not provided any response to us about who is behind the attack and why it happened,” said Mohammad Hakim, a victim’s family member. At least 90 people, most of them students, were killed and over 150 more were wounded in the attack that started with a car bomb explosion near the school and was followed by two more IED blasts in the same area.—Tolonews
