Bassirat 3 mai 2007 - Collectif de soutien aux exilés du 10e

Transcription

Collectif de soutien des exilés du 10ème
Quelques éléments sur la situation
des enfants et adolescents en Afghanistan
Brèves dans la presse
1
2005......................................................................................................................................................5
Kidnapped Afghan minors handed over to parents......................................................................5
Police claim arresting child kidnappers .......................................................................................5
2006......................................................................................................................................................6
165 schools closed in Helmand for security reasons ...................................................................6
Three more schools torched in troubled south .............................................................................6
Kidnapper of two children arrested in Mazar-i-Sharif.................................................................7
Afghanistan : incendie d’une école dans l’est du pays ................................................................7
Pakistan : fermeture des écoles pour réfugiés afghans dans la NWFP ........................................7
Afghan teenagers handed over to families in Nangarhar.............................................................7
Six children killed, 27 injured in two blasts ................................................................................8
School set alight in Ghazni ..........................................................................................................8
Two schools torched in Kapisa ....................................................................................................8
School set ablaze in Balkh ...........................................................................................................9
2007....................................................................................................................................................10
Makeshift school torched in Nangarhar .....................................................................................10
Taliban want to transfer terrorist camps into Afghanistan.........................................................10
Explosion kills four schoolchildren in Herat .............................................................................10
Problems of Afghan students in Iran discussed .........................................................................11
Afghanistan : une école incendiée dans la province du Logar...................................................11
Minors among six injured in Kabul rocket attack......................................................................11
Child kidnapping cases drop in Kandahar .................................................................................12
Schools torched; police, ANA vehicles attacked .......................................................................12
Landmine blast kills five minors in Ghazni...............................................................................13
Taliban commander detained, minors killed in firing................................................................13
Afghanistan : deux écolières abattues devant leur école............................................................14
Afghanistan : trois écoles incendiées dans la province du Kounar............................................14
Afghanistan : un enfant tué dans une attaque imputable à la rébellion......................................14
Afghanistan : un chef tâleb et deux enfants tués un raid de la coalition....................................14
Afghanistan : 2 000 déplacés par les combats dans la province de Helmand............................14
Afghanistan : deux jeunes bergers tués dans des échanges de tirs ............................................14
Four child kidnappers arrested in Kabul ....................................................................................15
Toy bomb kills two children in Khost .......................................................................................15
Women, children among several dead in Coalition operation ...................................................15
Doctor shot dead; minors injured in explosion ..........................................................................16
Two schools blown up in Herat .................................................................................................16
Minor killed in ISAF firing in Helmand ....................................................................................17
Afghanistan : deux enfants tués dans une opération de la coalition dans l’Est .........................17
Afghanistan : cinquante-neuf enfants tués dans l’attentat de Baghlan ......................................17
Tutor killed for teaching 'English and IT' in Paktia ...................................................................17
Afghanistan : six enfants tués dans un attentat-suicide visant des Italiens................................18
Six dead, nine wounded in Paghman suicide bombing..............................................................18
Families flee as operation in Taliban stronghold begins............................................................18
Afghanistan : un garçon de douze ans pendu par les taliban .....................................................19
Taliban hang boy accused of spying for foreigners ...................................................................19
Insecurity keeps 80% students away from schools in Helmand ................................................19
Women, child wounded in Kunar missile attack .......................................................................20
2008....................................................................................................................................................21
School building attacked, three held in Khost ...........................................................................21
Afghanistan : 300 000 élèves privés d’une scolarité à cause de l’insurrection..........................21
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Boy escapes from Taliban's captivity ........................................................................................21
Man killed, two minor wounded in Kunar.................................................................................22
Afghanistan : attentat-suicide raté dans la province de Farah ...................................................22
Young lovers arrested in Badakhshan........................................................................................22
NATO airstrike kills 13 civilians in Helmand, locals say..........................................................23
Child killed in Khost suicide attack ...........................................................................................23
Taliban torch high school in Kandahar ......................................................................................23
Two minors injured in missile attack.........................................................................................24
Teenagers kidnapped for suicide attack training........................................................................24
Unidentified assailants blow up school in Khost .......................................................................24
Unemployment, drought force youth out of Samangan.............................................................25
Afghanistan : 6,2 millions d’enfants ont retrouvé le chemin de l’école ....................................25
Gunmen attack school in Maidan Wardak.................................................................................25
700 Afghans killed by mines, explosives last year ....................................................................26
Coalition says insurgents blow up Paktika school .....................................................................26
Afghanistan : une école incendiée dans la province de Koundouz............................................26
Two children released after payment of huge ransom ...............................................................27
Militants torch school in Kapisa ................................................................................................27
Pakistan : l’évacuation du camp de réfugiés de Jalozai a commencé........................................27
Afghanistan : deux écoles incendiées dans la province du Logar..............................................28
Deux écoles mixtes incendiées dans le logar .............................................................................28
Kidnapping cases on the rise in Ghazni .....................................................................................28
Bombing kills woman, injures children in Laghman.................................................................29
Girls school torched in Swat valley ...........................................................................................29
Insecurity keeps 40,000 children off the school in Kandahar....................................................29
School building blown up in Paktika .........................................................................................30
Unidentified gunmen torch girls' school in Logar .....................................................................30
School blown up, two road workers injured in Logar ...............................................................31
Afghanistan : une école détruite et deux ouvriers tués dans la province du Logar....................31
Girls' school torched in Baghlan ................................................................................................31
Taliban's threats shrink attendance in schools ...........................................................................32
Afghanistan : démantèlement d’un gang qui enlevait et violait des enfants..............................32
School building damaged in Khost ............................................................................................32
Boy killed as Taliban attack Ghazni ..........................................................................................33
Taliban close schools in Qarabagh.............................................................................................33
School torched in Logar.............................................................................................................33
Three schoolgirls injured in Kunduz suicide attack...................................................................34
Two cops killed, girls' school torched........................................................................................34
47 civilians killed in US-led strikes in Nangarhar .....................................................................34
Two young Taliban killed, four teachers wounded....................................................................35
Two minors die in Qarabagh blast .............................................................................................35
Majority of schools closed in Helmand .....................................................................................35
Two kids killed as ISAF opens fire on a car in Kandahar .........................................................36
Primary school torched in Kunduz.............................................................................................36
Another school set ablaze in Kunduz.........................................................................................36
Unknown gunmen torch schoolbooks in Ghazni .......................................................................37
Teenaged boy killed, ten injured in blast ...................................................................................37
Ten refugee schools closed down in Baluchistan ......................................................................37
Six minors killed, 18 wounded in Ghazni blast .........................................................................38
Children worst sufferers in Afghan conflict ..............................................................................38
School building blown up in Paktika .........................................................................................38
Conference on children trafficking to be held on Oct, 11..........................................................38
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Acid attack on school girls in Kandahar ....................................................................................39
Four teenagers killed in Faryab blast .........................................................................................39
School students kidnapped from Logar .....................................................................................40
School blown up in Khost..........................................................................................................40
Violence against children on the rise: U.N. ...............................................................................40
Boy bomber: 'free me, I've got exams' .......................................................................................41
Ban appelle les taliban à cesser d'exploiter et d'enrôler des enfants ..........................................42
Girls school torched in Swat ......................................................................................................43
School teacher shot dead in Helmand ........................................................................................43
'UN report on Afghan children misleading' ...............................................................................43
Attentat dans l'est afghan: 16 morts dont 14 enfants (nouveau bilan) .......................................44
Children killed in afghan attack .................................................................................................44
taliban bomber kills 14 children in attack..................................................................................44
Unknown gunmen blow up school building in Farah ................................................................45
Blast leaves four minors dead, six more injured........................................................................45
2009....................................................................................................................................................46
Jihadi groups recruiting youths for terrorist activities ...............................................................46
Teenager abducted in Herat .......................................................................................................46
Taliban should stop targeting and using children:UN ...............................................................46
Blast kills three boys in Panjshir................................................................................................47
Child dies as militants attack forces in Uruzgan........................................................................47
Kunduz police rescue four youths, arrest kidnappers ................................................................47
Blast kills two children in Kandahar..........................................................................................48
Kabul police recover kidnapped teenager..................................................................................48
Pakistan bans admission to Afghans in schools, colleges..........................................................48
80% kids in Ghor condemned to child labor: AIHRC ...............................................................49
Suspected militants blow up two schools in Khost....................................................................49
SC condemns attack on civilians, staffing child soldiers...........................................................50
School destroyed as Taliban attack district in Laghman............................................................50
Série d'attaques en Afghanistan, au moins 27 morts..................................................................51
Nouvelle attaque au gaz dans une école pour filles ...................................................................51
Most of 140 Afghan dead in US airstrikes under 18..................................................................51
Taliban militants burn down school in S Afghanistan...............................................................52
Recruiter of child suicide bombers nabbed in Afghanistan .......................................................52
Four of 13 abducted children rescued in east.............................................................................53
Abducted boys rescued, gang busted in Kandahar ....................................................................53
10 children escape captors .........................................................................................................53
Afghanistan: un enfant meurt dans l'explosion de la bombe qu'il posait...................................54
West air raid kills Afghan school children.................................................................................54
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2005
Pajhwok 6 juin 2005
Kidnapped Afghan minors handed over to parents
PESHAWAR, June 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two Afghan minors kidnapped from Balakh province to
Pakistan a fortnight back were handed over to their parents here on Monday. Parents of the two teenagers Sharifuddin, son of Najmuddin (12), and Nizamuddin (13), son of Ziauddin - were called to the Afghan
Consulate to take custody of their children. Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Consul General Haji Abdul
Khaliq Farahi thanked Pakistan police for their cooperation in safe recovery of the teens. He added the
Consulate would make arrangements for their return to Afghanistan. Farahi advised refugees to inform the
Consulate whenever they encountered suspects or saw such an activity in their camps. Nizamuddin, father of
one of the children, thanked the police and the Afghan Consulate for saving the lives of the minors.
Touching scenes were in evidence as the parents embraced their children - breaking into tears. "Our families
have already mourned these children, whom we presumed dead before their release," the parents observed
while thanking police and consulate officials. The two children - kidnapped from the Balkh province on May
22 - were brought to Pakistan via the Kabul-Torkham route and kept in the Azakhel refugee camp, some 30
kilometers from here. On a tip-off from camp authorities, police conducted a raid, recovered the teenagers
and arrested an alleged kidnapper. Four of the kidnapper's accomplices managed to give police the slip.
Kidnapped children recovered from refugee camp
PESHAWAR, June 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police have recovered two Afghan minors allegedly
kidnapped from Balakh province 10 days back. Sharifuddin, son of Najmuddin (12), and Nizamuddin (13),
son of Ziauddin, were allegedly kidnapped by Rahman Barfi, son of Barat Khan. The alleged kidnappers
were abetted by four accomplices, police told Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday. Azakhel Police Station
SHO Shah Hasan said the abductor was in their custody while his abettors managed to run away. Kidnappers
were trying to shift the two children to Mansehra, he said, adding investigations were underway and police
trying to arrest the four outlaws at large. Sobbing out the kidnap saga, Sharifuddin recalled he was sitting in a
garden with Nizamuddin when a car stopped near them. "The five men dragged us into the car," he
continued. The children were first taken to Kabul and then shifted to Pakistan, with the abductors often
warning to kill them. "But they did not subject us to torture." Police chief of Azakhel refugee camp Allah
Dad told this news agency the two children could not speak Pashto. He said residents of the area informed
them on the basis of suspicion. The alleged kidnapper, when approached by this scribe, rejected the charge
and said the children requested him to lead them to Mansehra. Afghan Consul General in Peshawar Haji
Abdul Khaliq Farahi, when contacted for comments, said the children would either be handed over to the
Afghan Interior Ministry or their parents. Nizamuddin said he was a resident of the Kalfat Bandar area in
Balkh province. He had studied in the Naubahar High School of the province.
Pajhwok 29 juin 2005
Police claim arresting child kidnappers
FAIZABAD/KABUL, June 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police have claimed arresting two men for alleged
involvement in child abductions in Balkh and Badakhshan provinces. Badakhshan police chief Shah Jehan
Noori said on Tuesday the kidnapped teenagers, identified as Abdullah, Zainullah and Imamuddin - aging
between 13 and 15 - had been handed over to their parents. He said the children belonged to Imam Sahib
district of the northern Kunduz province, whom the kidnapper trying to shift to an unknown location via
Badakhshan. The alleged kidnapper has been identified as Mustafa. Talking to Pajhwok Afghan News, one
of the children said they did not know Mustafa. However, the alleged kidnapper told police he had brought
the children for work. Meanwhile, Saeed Anwar Mujmir, an official of the counter-narcotics of the Interior
Ministry, said two children, Mohammad Yasin (6) and Roohullah (7), who were kidnapped two days back
from the northern Balkh province, had been recovered. The kidnapper Ghulam Nasir has been arrested, while
the children have been handed over to their parents. In a similar incident, Baghlan police have claimed
arresting four people for kidnapping four children from Pul-i-Khumri. The kidnappers told police they were
transferring the children to neighbouring Pakistan with the consent of their parents.
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2006
Pajhwok 22 janvier 2006
165 schools closed in Helmand for security reasons
LASHKARGAH, Jan 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): About 165 schools have been closed down due to
security reasons in the southern restive province of Helmand, provincial education director said Sunday.
Director Haji Mohammad Qasim told Pajhwok Afghan News schools located in Nadali, Nawzad, Baramcha
and a number of other districts of this province were closed down due to increasing threats from Taliban
fighters.
"First security should be established in the region, a vital step for imparting education, without which the
smooth process of learning is impossible," he said.
We could train people despite small resources if law and order situation was restored in the zone, he added.
There are about 75 operative schools, where 590 teachers were busy in spreading fountain of knowledge to
35,213 girls and boys students.
If the status quo persisted the remaining schools would also be shut soon, he warned.
A number of residents term Taliban threats the prime cause for closure of a number of schools in the
province.
Mirza Jan, a resident of Lashkargah told this news agency Taliban had several times threatened them with
death if they sent their children to schools.
In a recent spate of attacks, Taliban have torched many schools in the volatile province and have also killed a
teacher and a student.
Deputy education minister Siddiq Patman also said sense of widespread insecurity had halted the mechanism
of education in the province.
However, Defence Ministry Representative Lieutenant General Jan Khan and Zalmi Rasool, President
Advisor on Security had said they would deploy about 300 forces in the area to upbeat security.
Meanwhile, Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Kandahar has expressed deep
concern over closure of schools in the southern Afghanistan.
Head of AIHRC Engineer Abdul Qadir Noorzai said that both public and government should play their role
in opening the schools.
Three more schools torched in troubled south
LASHKARGAH, Jan 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Three middle schools were torched in Nawa district of
the restive southern province of Helmand late Friday night, security officials said Saturday.
Provincial police chief Col. Abdul Rahman Sabir told Pajhwok Afghan News the three schools located in
Hazarhash, Mangalzari and Surkhdozi areas of the district came under the arson attack by unidentified
miscreants.
Furniture pieces and stationery in the schools were burnt to ashes, said the police officer, who disclosed they
were questioning several suspects held in connection with the latest arson incidents.
Mohammad Lal, a passenger who arrived in this provincial capital city from the site, confirmed all the three
schools for boys in the area had been set afire. "Residents were earlier warned several times by armed thugs
to stop sending their children to schools."
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Pajhwok 21 février 2006
Kidnapper of two children arrested in Mazar-i-Sharif
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Feb 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police have arrested a man for trying to kidnap
abroad two children in the northern Balkh province, security officials said on Tuesday.
Spokesman for provincial police headquarters Sher Jan Durrani told Pajhwok Afghan News they recovered
the two children trafficked by Abdul Razzaq, who had a fake passport and Iranian visa.
The children aged 11 and 12 had been kidnapped from the northern Faryab province and police secured their
release in Mazar-i-sharif, Durrani said, adding the kids had been handed over to their families.
The human trafficking bid was thwarted weeks after the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights
Commission's regional office in Faryab voiced grave concern over increasing kidnaps of, and violence
against, children.
Bassirat 19 mars 2006
Afghanistan : incendie d’une école dans l’est du pays
Dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi, des inconnus ont incendié une école primaire dans le village de
Mashakhel, dans la province du Laghman, à l’est de Kaboul. Une partie de l’école, des meubles et des
fournitures scolaires ont été détruits. La police, avec l’aide de la population locale, a éteint l’incendie. Elle a
également procédé à l’interpellation de deux suspects.
Avec Pajhwok
Bassirat 8 avril 2006
Pakistan : fermeture des écoles pour réfugiés afghans dans la NWFP
Le Pakistan tente de forcer les réfugiés Afghans à rentrer chez eux. Après avoir rejeté une demande du Haut
commissariat aux réfugiés qui voulait que les réfugiés puissent passer une année supplémentaire au Pakistan,
le gouvernement a ordonné la fermeture des écoles ouvertes dans les camps de la Province de la Frontière du
Nord-Ouest (NWFP). « Ces réfugiés sont un fardeau pour le Pakistan et ils devraient rentrer chez eux. La
majorité d’entre eux sont impliqués dans des activités criminelles », s’est justifié Javed Ashraf Qazi,
ministre pakistanais de l’Education.
Avec IRNA
Pajhwok 9 avril 2006
Afghan teenagers handed over to families in Nangarhar
JALALABAD, Apr 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Seventeen teenagers released from a Karachi jail and then
later deported by Pakistan's government were on Sunday handed over to their families in Jalalabad, the
provincial capital of the eastern Nangarhar province.
The minors first delivered on Friday to Afghan authorities in the border town of Torkham, were later given
to their families after a check up in Jalalabad.
The teenagers were detained in Karachi by Pakistani police according to the Foreign Act several months
back when they were trying to flee illegally to a foreign country along with their families, who were freed
earlier. The minors were released and handed over to the Afghan consulate in Karachi last week.
Atiqullah Murad, a provincial Foreign Ministry official in Jalalabad, told Pajhwok Afghan News the
teenagers were attacked by some diseases like scabies, weight loss and psychological disorder during the
custody.
Muhammad Safi, a 16-years-old boy from Tagab district of the Kapisa province, said: "We were intended to
go to Iran when Pakistani authorities arrested us in Karachi, we were beaten badly and forced to work hard."
7
Qudratullah, 17, from Alingar district of Laghman, said they were forced to give Rs1,000 to the first group
of police who arrested them and then they handed over the detainees to another group. "We were not treated
like humans and there was no water and food in the prison," he revealed.
Muhammad Ibrahim Popal, an official in charge of children rights with the Afghanistan Independent Human
Rights Commission (AIHCR) said detaining minors was against the International Human Rights Convention.
He said the Afghan government and global rights agencies had to question the Pakistani government about
legal reasons for the detention.
"Afghan refugees are still living legally in Pakistan and officials do not have the right to arrest any Afghan
for not having passport, as they have legal right to live there," said Popal.
Pajwok 11 avril 2006
Six children killed, 27 injured in two blasts
ASADABAD, Apr 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): At least six children were killed and 22 more injured on
Tuesday morning when a rocket hit a primary school in the eastern Kunar province, security officials said.
Separately, five people, including, a child were wounded in Jalalabad, provincial capital of the eastern
Nangarhar.
Provincial intelligence chief Ghulam Hassan Farahi told Pajhwok Afghan News the rocket struck the school
at 8:30 am, in Salarbagh area, outside of the provincial capital Asadabad.
The students were busy studying when the incident occurred, hence it caused many casualties, he said,
adding the wounded were rushed to the US base in Asadabad, but had littler information about their
condition at the moment.
Safiullah, a student, told this news agency they were busy studying when they heard a big bang. The rocket
hit the corner of mosque in the school that left six students killed and 22 more injured including a teacher, he
added.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident five people including a child were injured in Jalalabad, provincial capital
of the eastern Nangarhar. Provincial police spokesman Col Abdul Ghafoor told this news agency that a mine
hit a car at 10am at phase 2 in front of Ali Baba Limited. He said the driver, passengers and passers were
injured in the hospital that were rushed to the Civil Hospital in Nangarhar.
Shahkirullah, an eyewitness, said: "We heard bang as the car reached the spot, hurriedly approaching the site,
we saw that some people were wounded." Dr Faridullah said they had received five injured in critical
condition.
Pahjhwok 17 avril 2006
School set alight in Ghazni
GHAZNI CITY, Apr 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified gunmen burned a middle school in the
Moqur district of the southern Ghazni province last night.
Provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday the school was
torched in Sra Zranda area of the district around 10pm Sunday night.
He added police contingents had been sent into the area for investigations but no arrest had been made thus
far.
Sardar Gul, resident of the area, said it was the only school which was operational in the area. He said before
construction of the school, students used to travel long distance, while many others have stopped studying.
Taliban are against western education, calling it un-Islamic. Several teachers have been killed and school
burnt in the southern provinces to force people not to send their children to schools.
Pajhwok 9 mai 2006
Two schools torched in Kapisa
MAHMOODRAQI, May 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified gunmen set alight two schools on
Tuesday in Najrab district of the northern Kapisa province and thrown warning letters in the area warning
parents to stop their children from schools.
8
Over 2,000 students were reading in two schools Abdul Rashid Shahid and Abdul Hadi Shahid. Director of
Education Department Ustad Abdul Rasool told Pajhwok Afghan News unidentified miscreants torched
Abdul Rashid Shahid Middle School in Pachghan valley of the district. He said the fire gutted administration
room, library, two tents and large number of stationary including 600 text books.
He said one tent in Abdul Hadi Shahid School was also torched, but local people prevented fire from
engulfing to other rooms. He blamed enemies of the people and education for arson attack and said after
setting fire to schools miscreants spread pamphlets warning parents to stop their children from schools.
40-year-old Farid Ahmad resident of Pachghan and teacher in Shahid Abdul Rashid School said:" We saw
smoke rising from school buildings and prevented it from spreading to other parts."
Religious scholars and other influential in this district condemned the arson attack.
Member of the district religious scholars' council Maulvi Faiz Mohammad said:" We dont let our children
remain illiterate, we want people to keep sending their children to schools."
Provincial police Chief Major General Mohammad Liqa Andarabi blamed Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami party
loyalists for the incidents. He also claimed Qari Nijat former commander of Hezb-e-Islami was behind the
notorious arson attack on schools.
Pajwok 8 juin 2006
School set ablaze in Balkh
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, June 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified gunmen set ablaze overnight a school in
Charbolak district of the northern Balkh province, officials said on Thursday.
The unidentified armed men set alight Shaheed Ghulam Farooq Middle School in Arzan district, reducing to
ashes classrooms and all other equipments. Head of the Charbolak district Gul Ahmad Paiman blamed
'enemies of the peace and education' for the incident and said the police had arrested two suspected men in
line with the arson attack. About 400 students were studying in the school that would now read in the open or
then in makeshift.
Paiman appealed the people to help in reconstructing the school building to prevent the wastage of precious
time of the children. Head of the Education Department in Balkh Maulvi Abdul Aziz said anti-government
elements were behind the attack. He urged the law enforcement agencies to ensure security in the region that
students should concentrate on their studies. Earlier, a school was torched in Chamtal district.
The education ministry says more than 60 schools have been set ablaze in past four years, most of them in
southern areas in addition to 120 other schools closed due to security apprehensions.
9
2007
Makeshift school torched in Nangarhar
JALALABAD, Jan 03, 2007 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified gunmen set fire to a school, made for
children of recently repatriated families, in Behsud district of the eastern Nangarhar province, security
officials said Wednesday.
The arson attack on an educational institution on Tuesday night is the first in the country during the new
year.
Spokesman for the provincial police headquarters Col. Abdul Ghafoor told Pajhwok Afghan News that the
makeshift school made of tents by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) was built for children of
former refugee families living in Murch Tangi area of the Behsud district. These refugee families had
recently returned from neighboring Pakistan.
Ghafoor said five tents, furniture and a lot of stationeries were gutted in the fire by 'enemies of education in
our country', a term often referred to Taliban fighters.
Gul Pacha Khalilzai, deputy head of the provincial education department, said about 2,000 children were
studying in the school.
Officials estimate around 200 schools have been torched by gunmen and hundreds more have been closed
down due to insecurity in different parts of the war-shattered country during the past years.
Taliban want to transfer terrorist camps into Afghanistan
KABUL, Jan 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Minister for Education Hanif Atmar Monday said Taliban wanted
to transfer terrorists' camps from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Addressing a press conference, the minister said they would launch military action against the Taliban
schools if the militants wanted to materialise their announcement. Abdul Hai Mutmain, chief spokesman for
Taliban, the other day announced they would build schools in southern provinces. Atmar said announcement
of constructing schools was a glaring contrast in words and deeds of the Taliban as they were burning the
already constructed schools and wanted to built new ones.
Pointing to a madrassa in Bajaur agency, he said Pakistan government had mounted pressure on Taliban for
closing their madrassas in Pakistan thus the militants wanted to transfer their schools into Afghanistan.
The minister said neither the people would send their children to these schools and nor they would allow
Taliban to construct schools in their regions. Recalling the burning of schools by Taliban, he questioned: "If
Taliban really want to build schools, why the militants have burnt 183 schools and have shut others 396
schools in south?"
Atmar said local councils had been formed in different parts of the country to guard the schools against
militants. He said local councils had helped in defending 80 per cent of schools from torching by Taliban.
However, Taliban said presence of foreign forces was the reason for schools closure and their burning.
Earlier, a statement from Taliban said the Taliban-era curriculum would be taught in these schools. Taliban
spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmain told Pajhwok Afghan News they were going to implement the programme in
areas under "their control."
Explosion kills four schoolchildren in Herat
HERAT CITY, Apr 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Four schoolchildren were killed and five more wounded in
an explosion at a school in the western province of Herat on Tuesday.
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Shafiq Fazli, police chief of the province, told Pajhwok the explosion was caused by a canon shell brought
by the children from the ANA centre adjacent to the school.
Fazli said the boys were playing with the shell during break when it went off. Four children died on the spot
while five others sustained injuries and were rushed to hospital for treatment.
The police chief ruled out involvement of terrorist activity in the blast and said it was an accident.
Barkatullah Mohammadi, in charge of the emergency ward at Herat Civil Hospital, said condition of the
injured was stable.
Problems of Afghan students in Iran discussed
TEHRAN, April 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Problems of around 130,000 Afghan children enrolled in
Iranian schools were discussed threadbare at a meeting here, a local media report said on Thursday.
UNHCR representative Austin Brawni, Afghan Charge de Affaires Abdul Ghafur and UNICEF Bureau
Director in Tehran Christian Salazar conferred on the situation of the Afghan children studying in Iran.
Over the last three decades, IRNA quoted the Afghan charge de affaires as saying, three generations of his
compatriots had moved to Iran, where more than a million of them were still living.
Residence cards for most of the 130,000 Afghan students were a big problem, Abdul Ghafur said, adding the
school network in his country was in a shambles as a result of decades of conflict.
Thirty years of war have left 80 percent of schools demolished in Afghanistan, where two million children
are taught in outdoor classes, according to the charge de affaires. Half of the six million students in his
country were deprived of academic facilities, Ghafur continued.
About 10 percent of the Afghan population was living in Iran, or 1-35th of the Iranian population comprised
Afghans, said UNHCR representative Austin Brawni, who argued taking care of such a large number of
refugees was no easy job.
He observed: "The Afghan refugees here have urged Iranian policymakers and planners to shoulder a great
deal of work for their residence, occupation, schooling and repatriation."
Christian Salazar, UNICEF Bureau director in Tehran, informed the meeting the UN Fund for Children had
allocated a separate budget for the education of Afghan children, especially in Sistan-Balochistan.
He also referred to meetings with heads of Iranian schools where Afghan children were studying, Education
Ministry officials and civil society members on resolving the problems facing the refugee children
Bassirat 3 mai 2007
Afghanistan : une école incendiée dans la province du Logar
Des hommes armés non identifiés ont incendié mercredi matin une école dans la province du Logar, au sud
de Kaboul, a annoncé la chaîne privée Tolo TV. 2 000 livres scolaires, des bureaux, des chaises et d’autres
équipements ont été détruits. L’an dernier, 185 écoles ont été incendiées en Afghanistan et plus de 300 ont
été fermées à cause de l’insécurité, a récemment annoncé le ministre de l’Éducation.
Avec Tolo TV
Pahjhwok 7 mai 2007
Minors among six injured in Kabul rocket attack
KABUL, May 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Six people, including two children, were injured when a rocket
landed in a congested area of this capital city Monday morning, police and residents said.
The rocket, fired from an undisclosed location, landed in front of a house in the Pul-i-Pacha area of the ninth
police station around 7am this morning, residents said.
Sazuddin, dweller of the area, said two minor girls and four men suffered injuries in the rocket attack.
This correspondent witnessed a chopped off leg of one of the injured girls. Pointing to the limb, Sazuddin
said the innocent girl had also received injuries in the chest.
Forty-year-old Noorullah told Pajhwok his family was busy with breakfast when they heard a big bang in
front of their house. He said the injured were rushed to hospital with the help of the local people.
11
Operational chief of the 9th police station Zarwali Andiwal said the explosion was caused by a rocket.
However, he was unable to mention the direction from where it was fired.
Crime branch chief at the Kabul police headquarters General Alishah Paktiawal said six people had been
injured in the attack, the second in less than a fortnight.
Earlier, a rocket landed near the Kabul International Airport; however, it did not cause losses to life or
property.
Zubair Babakarkhail
Pajhwok 7 mai 2007
Child kidnapping cases drop in Kandahar
KANDAHAR CITY, May 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A two-day workshop on violence against children
started in this southern city on Monday.
Officials of all the provincial departments, influential and common citizens are participating in the workshop
to discuss and inform themselves about the problems faced by children in the society.
Speaking on the occasion, director of works and social affairs department Dost Mohammad Arghistani said
the graph of violence against children had considerably dropped over the previous few years.
He said kidnapping of children was rampant in the province a few years back. However, the ratio had
dropped as a result of the measures adopted by the provincial government.
Arghistani said some problems, like non-availability of schooling facilities and child labour were still existed
and the government was trying to overcome it by organising such workshops and seminars.
Syed Abdul Sami Hashmi, official of the United Nations' Children Fund (UNICEF) in Kandahar, told
Pajhwok such workshops were being organised to create awareness among people about violence against
children.
He said they were going to organise such workshops in other southern provinces to create awareness among
people about the problems faced by children.
One of the participants and official of the Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) Noor Ahmad said they had
picked a lot of knowledge on the first day of the workshop.
Children were the future builders of a nation and the society should train and equip them with knowledge
and better skills instead of creating problems for them, said the participant.
Pajhwok 22 mai 2007
Schools torched; police, ANA vehicles attacked
KABUL, May 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): One policeman was killed and six more people, including three
policemen and as many local engineers working with a foreign security company, were wounded in two
separate attacks in Kandahar and Ghazni on Tuesday.
Separately, two schools were torched in Laghman and Logar provinces while a woman was killed and
another committed suicide in Laghman.
In the first happening, four policemen injured when their vehicle hit a roadside landmine in seventh district
of Kandahar City Tuesday morning. One of the cops later succumbed to his injuries, officials said.
Kandahar police chief Esmatullah Alizai said three civilians were also injured in the blast.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said they were responsible for the attack that killed and injured
seven policemen.
In the Mula Nooh Baba area of Ghazni province, vehicle of the US security agency USPI stepped on a
roadside landmine injuring three local engineers.
Major Saleh Mahmood, commander of the highway police in Ghazni, told Pajhwok the three men injured in
the attack were Afghans.
Muhammad Anas Sharif, calling himself a Taliban commander in Ghazni, said all the people traveling in the
vehicle were killed.
Two schools were set ablaze in Laghman and Logar provinces last night. The arson attacks were carried out
in Mehtarlam and Baraki Brak district, officials told Pajhwok.
Ishaq Nangial, headmaster of the torched school in Mehtarlam, said the building was set on fire around 2am.
It was partially damaged and some chairs and tables had also been gutted, he informed.
12
He said books and other documents were saved due to timely arrival of locals who helped extinguish the fire.
Laghman security chief Najeebullah Hotak said investigations were underway to arrest the culprits. This is
the first arson attack on a school in Laghman during the previous 10 months.
In another such incident, armed men attacked a girls' middle school in Baraki Barak district of the central
Logar province.
Deputy head of the education department Muhammad Sadiq Stanikzai told Pajhwok unidentified miscreants
first hit the school building with rockets and then set a tented room on fire.
Pajhwok 26 mai 2007
Landmine blast kills five minors in Ghazni
GHAZNI CITY, May 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Five minors were killed and two more wounded in a
landmine blast in Andar district of the southern Ghazni province on Saturday.
District chief Abdul Rahim Desiwal told Pajhwok the freshly planted mine exploded when the children tried
to dig it out.
The district chief blamed Taliban militants for planting the mine which killed and injured the innocent
children in Lagharo village of the district.
However, self-proclaimed Taliban commander Mullah Anas Sharif said their men did not plant the landmine.
Andar is one of the lawless districts in the southern zone where attacks on foreign and Afghan soldiers and
landmine blasts are quite frequent.
Separately, a man allegedly killed his wife in Koh Band district of the central Kapisa province last night,
officials told Pajhwok Afghan News.
Chief of the district Qazi Noor Aqa said the family had recently returned from Iran. He said the woman,
named Marzia, was shot dead by her husband last night.
The alleged murderer, Abdullah, and two more people had been detained and were presently under
investigations with the police, said the district chief
Pajhwok 4 juin 2007
Taliban commander detained, minors killed in firing
KABUL, June 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A suspected Taliban commander was detained during a joint
operation by the Afghan and Coalition troops in the southern province of Kandahar.
Separately, two young boys were killed and as many wounded in firing by unidentified men in Qalat, capital
of the southern Zabul province.
A statement from Bagram base said Taliban commander Mullah Sher Muhammad was captured during an
operation in Kanuzai area of the Panjwayee district of Kandahar.
No shot was fired and no one was injured during the operation by the Afghan army assisted by the Coalition
troops, said the statement.
The detainee was responsible for leading Taliban militants in the district as well as the kidnapping of four
interpreters, three of whom were later killed by the rebels, it added.
In the neighbouring province of Zabul, two minor boys were killed and as many wounded in firing by
unidentified armed men, residents told Pajhwok Afghan News.
The four boys were playing in a garden when hit by stray bullets killing two of them on the spot while two
others sustained injuries, said Samiullah, dweller of the area.
However, another resident Abdul Waheed said the children fell prey to firing by security personnel passing
through the area.
Chief of the highway police Jailani Khan expressed ignorance about the incident but said a supply convoy,
on way from Qalat to Shajoy district, was twice attacked in Shah Husainkhail and Musakhail areas by armed
men last evening.
Separately, an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier was killed and another sustained injuries in a landmine
explosion in the same city.
Commander of 205 Military Corps Rahmatullah Raufi told this news agency the police vehicle hit the
landmine in an area between the districts of Shinkay and Sewray last evening.
13
Bassirat 13 juin 2007
Afghanistan : deux écolières abattues devant leur école
Mardi, Des hommes armés circulant à moto ont ouvert le feu sur des jeunes Afghanes devant leur école, en
tuant deux et en blessant six autres. L’incident s’est produit dans la région de Kalangar, dans la périphérie de
Pol-e Alam, chef-lieu de la province du Logar, au sud de Kaboul. Les tireurs ont pris la fuite, ont précisé les
responsables locaux.
Avec Reuters et Pajhwok
Bassirat 28 juin 2007
Afghanistan : trois écoles incendiées dans la province du Kounar
Des hommes armés non identifiés ont incendié trois écoles primaires dans le district de Shigal, dans la
province orientale du Kounar, ont annoncé mardi les autorités locales. Situées dans une région isolée, ces
trois écoles accueillaient des centaines d’élèves.
Avec Pajhwok
Bassirat 10 juillet 2007
Afghanistan : un enfant tué dans une attaque imputable à la rébellion
Dimanche, des rebelles ont lancé une attaque au mortier contre la Force internationale d’assistance à la
sécurité dans la province orientale du Kounar. « Un garçon de dix ans a été tué lorsque deux tirs d’obus ont
raté leurs cibles dans un village du district de Nari », a affirmé un communiqué de l’isaf. Trois civils et cinq
soldats de l’Isaf ont également été blessés.
Avec Xinhua
Afghanistan : un chef tâleb et deux enfants tués un raid de la coalition
Tôt lundi matin, un chef tâleb et deux enfants ont été tués lors d’un raid de la coalition antiterroriste
internationale dans la province de Paktia, au sud-est de l’Afghanistan. Lors du raid, des rebelles ont ouvert le
feu sur les forces de la coalition et sur les soldats afghans. Leur riposte a fauché deux enfants et un chef
tâleb, identifié comme étant le commandant Salim, a précisé un porte-parole de l’armée américaine. Une
femme a également été blessée dans les échanges de tirs. Le commandant Salim était accusé d’avoir mené
des attaques visant les troupes afghanes et étrangères.
Afghanistan : 2 000 déplacés par les combats dans la province de Helmand
Environ 2 000 personnes, essentiellement des femmes et des enfants, ont fui leurs villages de la province de
Helmand pour échapper aux combats qui opposent les taliban aux forces étrangères déployées dans la région.
Avec IRIN
Bassirat 23 août 2007
Afghanistan : deux jeunes bergers tués dans des échanges de tirs
Le chef de la police dans la province de Ghazni, Ali Shah Ahmadzaï, a annoncé mercredi la mort de deux
jeunes bergers d’une tribu nomades. Ils ont été pris dans des échanges de tirs entre combattants taliban et
policiers. « Nous menons une enquête pour déterminer comment ces deux enfants ont été tués. Nous ne
14
savons pas encore s’ils ont été tués par des tirs de la police ou ennemis », a-t-il indiqué. L’incident s’est
produit dans le village d’Hasankhel, dans le district de Rashidan.
Plus tard dans la journée, les taliban ont affirmé avoir pris le contrôle du district à l’issue de combats qui ont
duré deux heures. Deux policiers et un agent des services de renseignements ont été capturés. Selon les
taliban, les deux policiers ont été exécutés. Ils étaient responsables de la mort des deux jeunes bergers, selon
eux.
Par ailleurs, quatre insurgés ont été tués dans le district d’Andar lors d’affrontements avec les forces de
sécurité. Deux policiers ont été blessés, a annoncé le chef du district, Abdoul Rahim Desiwal.
Avec AFP et Pajhwok
Pajhwok 14 septembre 2007
Four child kidnappers arrested in Kabul
KABUL, Sept 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police said they had detained four members of a gang involved
in kidnapping of children and recovered a minor from their possession last night.
Crime investigation department chief Gen. Alishah Paktiawal told Pajhwok Afghan News the kidnappers
were apprehended during an overnight operation in this capital city.
He said the alleged criminals surrendered after a brief exchange of fire with the police. One policeman
sustained minor injuries during the shootout.
He said the four men were being investigated to get a clue to their other colleagues. He said the gang
members were being chased by police since long.
Incidents of child kidnappings have increased in the country. Three kidnappers were detained in Maidan
Shahr, capital of the central Maidan Wardak province, by police and recovered an eight-year-old child from
their possession last month.
Pajhwiok 1er octobre 2007
Toy bomb kills two children in Khost
KABUL, Oct 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two children were killed and five more people were wounded as a
toy bomb went off in Bak district of the southeastern Khost province, officials said.
Police spokesman in Khost Wazir Badshah told Pajhwok Afghan News the explosion took place in Sperkay
village last evening.
He said unidentified people had placed the toy car in front of the house of Akbar Ali, resident of the village.
The toy bomb went off as Akbar's children picked the car.
Two children, aging four and six years, died in the blast while four more people, including mother of the two
children, suffered injuries in the explosion.
Dr. Gul Muhammadin Muhammadi, director of the public health department, told Pajhwok condition of one
of the injured was precarious.
Pajhwok 5 octobre 2007
Women, children among several dead in Coalition operation
KABUL, Oct 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A number of civilians, including women and children, were killed
and injured in an early morning operation by the US-led Coalition troops in Wazi Khwa district of the
southeastern Paktika province.
A statement issued here said "several non-combatants were found dead and several others found wounded"
after a military action against militants in Wazi Khwa this morning.
Although the Coalition statement did not mention the exact number of those killed and injured, local officials
said they had retrieved seven bodies of civilians from a building targeted by the Coalition troops.
Security chief of the province Farooq Sangari told Pajhwok the dead included both women and men while
three more people had sustained injuries. He said hands of those found dead were tied behind with a rope. He
added that four Coalition soldiers were also injured in the action.
15
Earlier, a statement from the Coalition's Bagram base said several militants were killed in an operation in
Paktika province. The previous statement had said that no civilian was killed or injured in the swoop.
A second statement about the same incident issued Friday afternoon said an assessment of the battle damages
suggested that several non-combatants were killed and injured.
The statement said the operation was conducted on the basis of "credible intelligence" suggesting presence of
militants in the compounds. "Upon reaching the compound, the combined team met with heavy resistance."
Several Coalition soldiers were wounded as a result of heavy fighting. They were evacuated to a Coalition
medical facility for treatment.
The statement said the Coalition troops responded with small-arms fire and precision-guided munitions
"destroying only the building housing the militants while some damage occurred to other buildings on the
compound".
"During the follow-on assessment, Coalition forces found several adult males, an adult female and one child
dead and two children wounded in the building housing the militants, who were engaging the combined
force," the military statement said.
It added that an investigation would be conducted into the incident.
Doctor shot dead; minors injured in explosion
GHAZNI CITY, Oct 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified armed men gunned down a doctor in
Qarabagh district of Ghazni while four children were injured as a war-head exploded in Khwaja Omri district
of the same province.
Ghazni security chief Col. Muhammad Zaman told Pajhwok the explosion happened Wednesday afternoon
in Qala-i-Naw area.
The children had found the unexploded rocket somewhere. They were hitting it with stones when it went off,
the security chief informed.
Rahmatullah, an eyewitness, told this news agency that four children were injured in the blast. They were
rushed to the district hospital for treatment.
Separately, a doctor was killed in Qarabagh district last night. District police chief Abdul Shakoor Farahi
alleged the slain named Muhammad Ikram was targeted by Taliban.
Shakoor said the doctor had no enmity with any one in the area. "He was a sober man and the militants
always target such people," said the police officer.
In yet another incident, robbers have looted an NGO office in Qalat, capital of the neighbouring Zabul
province, last night.
The armed men broke into the office of the Ibn-i-Sina health NGO and decamped with computers and other
equipment. They also took away three vehicles, said regional chief of the NGo Dr. Fazal Rahman.
Two schools blown up in Herat
HERAT CITY, Oct 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified miscreants blew up two school buildings in
Shindand district of the western Herat province last night, officials said.
Haji Muhammad Alam, district chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News four armed men destroyed buildings of the
Naderia (boys) Middle School and Mir Sadaat Middle School for girls in the midnight by planting
explosives.
Ghulam Hazrat Tanha, head of the education department, said a classroom was destroyed while all the books
were burnt in the boys' school as a result of the explosion.
In the second explosion, two classrooms of the Mir Sadaat School were demolished. No one was killed or
injured in the blasts, he added. Hundreds of boys and girls from the district were studying in the two schools.
Meanwhile, construction of a school building was completed in Roye Do Aab district in the northern
Samangan province.
The building was erected at the cost of $70,000 provided by the Ministry of Education. Habibullah, deputy
chief of the education department in the province, told Pajhwok Afghan News the one-storey construction
had eight classrooms.
16
Minor killed in ISAF firing in Helmand
KABUL, Oct 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A minor was killed in firing by the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern Afghanistan.
A statement from ISAF headquarters Saturday morning said the multinational force was investigating the
death of the Afghan child on October 19.
At an intersection located near Lashkargah, capital of the southern Helmand province, a vehicle approached
an ISAF patrol and the soldiers issued clear and measured warning signals to keep the vehicle from getting
too close, said the statement.
However, the driver failed to heed a series of warnings and continued towards the patrol. One single warning
shot was fired. The vehicle stopped. Sometime later, a family brought a child suffering from a gunshot
wound to the head to an ISAF base for medical attention. Unfortunately, the child died, it added.
The statement said the incident was being investigated.
Bassirat vendredi 2 novembre 2007
Afghanistan : deux enfants tués dans une opération de la coalition dans l’Est
Deux enfants ont été tués lors d’échanges de tirs entre des soldats de la coalition, appuyés par des militaires
afghans, et un rebelle retranché dans une maison fortifiée, a annoncé jeudi l’armée américaine. L’incident
s’est déroulé dans le district de Bati Kout, dans la province orientale du Nangarhâr. « Après être entrée dans
le bâtiment, l’équipe a essuyé des tirs d’armes légères et a riposté », affirme le communiqué. « Lorsque les
tirs ont cessé, l’équipe a fouillé la pièce et trouvé les deux enfants morts », ajoute le texte qui précise que six
personnes ont également été arrêtées. L’activiste présumé a aussi été tué dans l’attaque. Deux autres civils,
une femme et un enfant, ont été blessés.
À l’annonce de la mort des deux enfants, des centaines de personnes se sont rassemblés dans le village où
s’est déroulée l’attaque de la coalition pour dénoncer cette nouvelle bavure. Sele le chef du district de Bati
Kout, les victimes sont des civils qui n’ont pas le moindre lien avec la rébellion.
Avec Reuters et Pajhwok
Bassirat 9 novembre 2007
Afghanistan : cinquante-neuf enfants tués dans l’attentat de Baghlan
Le ministère de l’Éducation a annoncé vendredi que cinquante-neuf enfants et cinq instituteurs ont péri dans
l’attentat qui a frappé une délégation de parlementaires qui visitaient la sucrerie de Baghlan, au nord-est de
l’Afghanistan. Six parlementaires ont également été tués par l’explosion. « Nous avons 59 élèves, âgés de 8 à
18 ans, et cinq instituteurs tués dans cet attentat », a déclaré à l’AFP le porte-parole du ministère.
Par ailleurs, la police afghane a annoncé vendredi l’arrestation de deux hommes dans le cadre de l’enquête, a
annoncé le gouverneur de la province, Mohammad Alam Ishaqzaï. L’un est un imam, l’autre est un habitant
de la ville industrielle du nord du pays, a-t-il dit. « Les premières investigations montrent que ces hommes
ont pu avoir un rôle dans cet attentat », a-t-il dit sans donner plus de détails.
Avec AFP et Reuters
Pajhwok 15 novembre 2007
Tutor killed for teaching 'English and IT' in Paktia
GARDEZ, Nov 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Student was reportedly killed by Taliban for tutoring 'English
& Computer Science' subjects to boys and girls in high school of Sayeed Karam district in the southeastern
Paktia province on Thursday.
17
Din Muhammad Darweesh spokesman for the provincial governor told Pajhwok Afghan News that Tawab a
student of class ninth in Sayeed Karam high school used to tutor English and Computer to students at his
spare time.
Darweesh recalls "Taliban militants had many times warned him to stop the job. And ultimately shot him
dead on Wednesday evening when insurgents entered into the school."
Police were approached the area where two Taliban militants and to policemen were killed in the clash, he
said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman however did not give any information about the incident.
Bassirat 24 novembre 2007
Afghanistan : six enfants tués dans un attentat-suicide visant des Italiens
Samedi matin, un volontaire de la mort à pied s’est fait exploser à Kaboul, tuant six enfants et blessant douze
personnes, dont trois ingénieurs italiens qui travaillaient à la construction d’un pont. L’incident s’est produit
dans la banlieue ouest de Kaboul.
Avec AFP et Reuters
Pajhwok 24 novembre 2007
Six dead, nine wounded in Paghman suicide bombing
KABUL, Nov 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Six civilians including schoolchildren were killed and another
nine wounded in a suicide attack in Paghman district of Kabul Saturday morning, the Interior Ministry said.
Italian soldiers, three of whom were injured, were the target of the suicide bombing, the ministrys press
office told Pajhwok Afghan News. The troops were on their way to the site of an uplift project in the district.
A police officer said the suicide bomber on foot struck a vehicle of the Italian soldiers, building a bridge
west of the capital city, in Bulbul Chashma area of Paghman.
I saw several injured people being rushed in ambulances from Paghman to Kabul, said Rahimullah, a police
official at a checkpoint in the Company neighbourhood. He had no further details of the incident.
Pajhwok 5 décembre 2007
Families flee as operation in Taliban stronghold begins
LASHKARGAH, Dec 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan and NATO forces launched a widely expected
operation in the Taliban-held Musa Qala district of the volatile Helmand province on Wednesday. The sweep
prompted thousands of scared families into leaving homes for safer places.
Provincial Governor Asadullah Wafa, speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, revealed Afghan and International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers began the crackdown this morning on Taliban militants, who have
been in control of the restive district for about 10 months.
Also on Wednesday, the US-led Coalition claimed killing several militants during an operation to disrupt
foreign fighter and weapons facilitation networks in Garmser district of the same province. The troops
attacked an individual believed to be associated with weapons smuggling operations.
During a search of several compounds in Garmser, the Coalition added, the forces killed several armed
militants, who posed an imminent threat. Arms and explosives seized during the search were removed to
prevent their use by extremist forces.
Helmand police chief Brig. Gen. Muhammad Hussein Andiwal confirmed the NATO-Afghan swoop in
Musa Qala, a stronghold of Taliban insurgents. However, he gave no further details of the military campaign
- apparently aimed at recapturing the district.
Thousands of families are preparing to flee the embattled town, according to resident Farhad, who revealed
many dwellers were streaming into the neighbouring Sangin district.
With a view to avoiding the displacement of civilians, local tribal elders recently urged Afghan and foreign
soldiers not to embark on an operation in the winter. Fearing the action for weeks, locals are left with no
option but to shift elsewhere.
18
Meanwhile, Taliban denounced the launch of the swoop as a callous action. The operation would only
aggravate the hardships of the people, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi told Pajhwok by phone over the telephone from
an undisclosed location.
Bassirat 8 décembre 2007
Afghanistan : un garçon de douze ans pendu par les taliban
Dans le district de Sangin, un garçon de douze ans a été pendu dans un verger par les taliban, a annoncé
samedi le chef de la police de la province de Helmand, Mohammad Hussain Andiwal. Le garçon a été accusé
d’avoir transmis des informations sur les taliban au gouvernement et aux forces étrangères, a-t-il expliqué.
Avec AP
Taliban hang boy accused of spying for foreigners
LASHKARGAH, Dec 8(Pajhwok Afghan News) Taliban fighters Saturday hanged a boy in suspicion of
spying for coalition forces in Sangeen district of the restive Helmand province, security officials in the area
claimed.
Helmand police chief Maj. Gen Mohammad Hussain Andewal told Pajhwok Afghan News the boy aged 12
was hanged down from a tree in a garden of Haji Nizammudin village.
Andewal added the youth was punished for allegations of spying for the international peace keeping troops
in the area.
Nek Mohammad a resident of the area told this news agency the boy had no enmity with any one in the
district.
Taliban have so far, however, issued no statement about the incident.
It should be recalled here that rebels have killed 30 persons in Helmand province this year in suspicion of
spying for foreign troops including a teenager hanged half a month back in Sangeen district.
Insecurity keeps 80% students away from schools in Helmand
LASHKARGAH, Dec 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Education minister Muhammad Hanif Attmar Saunday
said 80 per cent of the students in Helmand province do not attend school due to insecurity in the province
and asked the elders to help the ministry in this regard.
Arriving on a one-day visit to the province Attmar expressed grave concern over the literacy situation in the
restive Helmand province.
Addressing a gathering attended by governor, provincial officials and hundreds of tribal elders the minister
asked the notables to support the government to reopen the schools.
"There were 224 schools in the province majority of them have however been burnt by the insurgents and
some were closed due to lack of security", he lamented.
He asked tribal elders to open schools through the local Community Councils.
"Without your support and cooperation we would never able to provide education to our children in the
province", the minister appealed.
"I have come to Helmand with my hands filled, if you open schools in Helmand, we will construct buildings
for schools, and the salary of the teachers will be increased to 20000 afghanis ($400) a month very soon", he
added.
Attmar told media after the gathering, A religious seminary would be established in each district to cater the
need of the religious education.
Asadullah Wafa, Helmand governor in his speech praised the education minister and considered him a strong
cabinet member.
He told tribal elders if they were unable to open schools their children will be deprived of the education.
Denmark ambassador Frank Michael told the gathering, his country had severe security problems a few
decades back , but after the people turned to education all the problems were resolved.
19
He promised to support education in Helmand province and added they are working on a plan to develop
education in the province.
A tribal elder of Kajaki Haji Abdul Wahid thanked the education minister and Denmark ambassador for
visiting Helmand province and promised to provide all possible support to open schools in the province.
After the gathering education minister met with male and female teachers separately and also held a closed
door meeting with tribal elders.
Women, child wounded in Kunar missile attack
ASADABAD, Dec 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Four people including a child and three women were
wounded in a missile attack in the restive eastern province of Kunar, a police chief said on Tuesday.
Suspected Taliban militants fired the missiles from Karir area across the Durand Line into Pashad village of
the Sarakan district, Kunar police head Brig. Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal said.
One of the missiles slammed into a house, injuring three women and a minor, Jalal informed Pajhwok
Afghan News. The wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment, he continued.
Meanwhile, the rebels said they had carried out missile assaults on a police checkpoint in Sarakan and a
foreign military base in Asadabad - the capital of Kunar where the guerrillas frequently target Afghan and
foreign troops.
The strike on the military centre in Asadabad caused huge losses to foreign soldiers, Taliban spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahid claimed. But the police chief scorned his assertion as groundless.
Mujahid went on to express deep regrets over the injuries inflicted on the four civilians in the Sarakan
missile attack, saying they were not the target. During the current year, it was a fourth missile strike that
caused civilian casualties.
20
2008
School building attacked, three held in Khost
- Jan 4, 2008 - 20:01
KHOST, Jan 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Rockets were fired at a school building in the capital of south
eastern Khost province bordering Kurram Agency of Pakistan while three people were arrested in connection
of an explosion near a military vehicle in the Sabri district on Friday.
Khost Education Department Director, Aziz Ahmad Hashmi said rockets were fired at the building of
Muhammad Sidiqi Rohi high school situated in Haiderkhelo area in the west of Khost city which damaged a
classroom, two generators causing no casualties.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman told this news agency that they were not involved in the attack on
school.
Having six thousand students the school also has branches in the surrounding villages and recently a doublestorey building constructed for it
Meanwhile in another incident of violence the sound of an explosion was heard in the Yaqubi area the
district.
Mujahid soon claimed the responsibility of the explosion and said several Afghan and coalition forces were
killed and wounded in the explosion.
However the NATO information center in western provinces has strongly rejected attack on its forces.
Military Corps Spokesman, Mastak Zazi said military vehicles were targeted in the attack but it inflicted no
casualties.
He said three people of the area have been arrested in the case.
In the district more than twenty militants having links with Taliban have been arrested in the joined operation
by NATO and Afghan forces since last one week.
The residents of the area however believe the detainees were local people having no relations with Taliban.
Bassirat 22 janvier 2008
Afghanistan : 300 000 élèves privés d’une scolarité à cause de l’insurrection
Le président afghan, Hamid Karzaï, a annoncé lundi que 300 000 élèves ne peuvent être scolarisés en raison
des violences, soit 100 000 de plus qu’en 2007. « Malheureusement, environ 300 000 enfants ne peuvent pas
aller à l’école par crainte des terroristes », a-t-il dit, en parlant des zones du sud du pays où l’insurrection
est la plus violente. En revanche, dans des zones plus stables, un million d’enfants ont pu entrer en classe
cette année, a expliqué le président, dont 40 % de filles.
Avec Agence France-Presse
Boy escapes from Taliban's captivity
Sher Ahmad Haider - Feb 22, 2008 - 15:03
GHAZNI CITY (PAN): A young boy Friday succeeded in running away from the captivity of militants
where he was instigated to execute suicide attack on troops in the Chenar village of restive Ander district in
the southern Ghazni province, an official said.
Allah Muhammad, 11 told Pajhwok Afghan News that he along his friend was kidnapped by five
unidentified militants and was being persuaded for executing suicide attack at district headquarters.
The boy said the militants took them to a mosque and were convincing that there were non-believers in the
district.
21
"When we denied from carrying out an explosion then militants fastened our hands and ordered for explosive
waistcoats in 15 minutes for us," he went on "When miscreants left mosque so I ran away but my friend
Hameedullah did not."
District chief Abdur Rahim Daisewal confirming the incident said that they would try to release the friend of
Allah Muhammad from the militants hold.
However, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman for southern zones, denounced the incident and termed
it just to defame Taliban.
"It is the conspiracy of Afghan intelligence officials only to disrepute the name of the Taliban among the
local people," he concluded
Man killed, two minor wounded in Kunar
Khan Wali Salarzai - Feb 23, 2008 - 15:02
ASADABAD (PAN): One person was killed and two children injured last evening by the firing of NATO
troops in the Manugi district of the eastern Kunar province, a resident said on Saturday.
Bashirullah, a resident of the district, told Pajhwok Afghan News the dweller along his children had gone to
the area where the entry of civilians was banned as the mountain was in the custody of militants.
"On Friday NATO troops came and told to the local there are militants in the mountain and we want to target
them," Bashirullah went on "Despite very insistence of the local they opened fire and killed one man and
injured two children."
Kunar Governor Syed Fazal Ullah Wahedi confirmed the incident and said the troops mistakenly opened
fire.
However, NATO media in charge for eastern zones, Shafiq Hamdam expressed ignorance from the incident.
Bassirat 26 février 2008
Afghanistan : attentat-suicide raté dans la province de Farah
Un adolescent s’est fait exploser samedi soir au volant d’une Toyota Corolla sur la route reliant la ville de
Farah au district de Farahrod, ont annoncé les responsables des services de sécurité dans cette province de
l’ouest de l’Afghanistan. L’attentat n’a pas fait d’autres victimes.
Avec Pajhwok
Young lovers arrested in Badakhshan
Jafar Thayar - Feb 27, 2008 - 17:39
FAIZABAD (PAN): Badakhshan police have detained a teenage girl and a young boy while they were
planning court-marriage without the consent of their parents, an official said on Wednesday.
High Court Judge, Maulvi Abdul Wali Rashedi told to Pajhwok Afghan News a teenage girl, Fatima,
belonging to Shorian village of the Yawanra district wanted to marry a 22-year-old, Ghamkhwar, from
Sufaid Arad village of the Shehr-e-Buzarg district.
A day earlier the couple had appealed for court-marriage and they were handed over to police until the
completion of their marriage formalities according to the law, he added.
Badakhshan Crimes Branch chief Col. Fazal Ahmad Nazari said the couple had been arrested and girl's
father was informed to come and take the girl.
Muhammad Qabil, father of the girl, told this news agency his daughter had been abducted by Ghamkhwar
two days back, however, he remained tight-lipped regarding the incident.
22
Pajhwok 14 mars 2008
NATO airstrike kills 13 civilians in Helmand, locals say
Akram Noorzai - Mar 14, 2008 - 10:21
LASHKARGAH (PAN): Residents of Grishk district in southern Helmand province claim 13 civilians
including women and children were killed by bombings of foreign troops.
However a spokesman for British forces in Helmand confirming the bombing claimed several Taliban
militants were killed in the attack.
Mohammadullah, a resident of Grishk told Pajhwok Afghan News 13 civilians were killed in the air strike in
Hyderabad village of the district. Another resident Mohammad Shoib also confirming the killing of civilians
said the bombing started after Taliban attacked a patrolling party of NATO forces.
Qri Yousaf Ahmadi, a spokesman for Taliban also claimed eight or nine civilians were killed by the air strike
of NATO forces.
He said NATO forces resorted to air strike after Taliban clashed with them for three hours. "But the
insurgents received no casualties in the fights," he added.
Simon Millar, spokesman of British forces in Helmand told this news agency that several Taliban militants
were killed in the bombing and added that no civilian was killed in the operation.
Though NATO forces had announced two months back that the Hyderabad area had been recaptured from
the militants but local people claim Taliban still dominated the area.
Child killed in Khost suicide attack
Saboor Mangal - Mar 15, 2008 - 11:51
KHOST (PAN): A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-filled car near NATO troops in eastern Khost
province Saturday, killing an Afghan child, officials said.
Eyewitnesses told Pajhwok Afghan News the suicide attack was carried out on the NATO troops on KhostGardez highway in Dosaraka area of Mandozai district.
"It was a suicide bombing against an ISAF convoy. One child was killed and three civilians were wounded,"
An official said.
Khost police spokesman Wazir Badshah confirming the attack said the area has been cordoned off and the
number of casualties was not known.
However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid phoned this new agency from undisclosed location and
said the attack was carried out by one of their militants that destroyed two NATO vehicles and killed all the
onboard soldiers.
Details are soon to be followed.
It was the second suicide attack in Afghanistan since Thursday when a blast in Kabul killed six civilians and
wounded four international soldiers.
Taliban torch high school in Kandahar
Bashir Nadem, Zabihullah Ihsas & Jafar Tayar - Mar 15, 2008 - 17:56
KANDAHAR CITY/ MAZAR-I-SHARIF (PAN): Taliban militants have torched a newly constructed school
in the southern Kandahar, officials said on Saturday.
Kandahar education director Haji Muhammad Anwar told Pajhwok Afghan News militants have torched a
newly constructed high school named (Mian Abdul Hakim) in the sixth police station of the capital city on
Friday night.
He added an administrative office, one library and a stock-room along with its equipments were completely
torched. The high school was inaugurated after its construction 20 days back where 200 girls and 1000 boys
were studying.
23
Confirming the incident crime branch chief in the police headquarters said their policemen have started
investigation in the area but no one has been captured yet.
Meanwhile, local officials and villagers have prevented an attempt of setting ablaze a middle school by
unidentified gunmen in Dokhta village of Dehdadi district in the northern Balkh province on Friday night.
Balkh education director Muhammad Zahir Penhan said only glasses of a classroom were broken and all its
chairs were burnt in the incident. Confirming the incident crime branch chief Brig. Gen. Abdul Rauf Taj said
the incident was caused due to personal rivalries and they have also captured a man on the suspicion.
In other news Badakhshan counter narcotics director Col. Imam Ali has informed torching 158 kilograms of
heroin, 482 kilograms of narcotics and 58 kilograms of hashish in front of people in Faizabad the capital city
of the province.
Two minors injured in missile attack
Ahmad Javed Javed - Mar 22, 2008 - 18:28
MAHMUD RAQI (PAN): Two children of a family were wounded when some unidentified militants fired
missiles in the Allasai district of the central Kapisa province, an eyewitness said on Saturday.
Muhammad Naseem, an eyewitness, told Pajhwok Afghan News the wounded children who were sons of a
shopkeeper in the district, have been shifted for further treatment to Kabul city.
Four missiles were fired from undisclosed location which hit the region near the security check post, injuring
two minors and slightly damaging three vehicles, he added.
Naseem added soon after the incident the security officials targeted the mountainous area near the district.
Provincial police chief Brig. Gen Matiullah Safi informed militants fired only one missile on the district and
injured a child.
Teenagers kidnapped for suicide attack training
Pajhwok Reporter - Mar 24, 2008 - 13:18
SWAT (PAN): Nine teenagers kidnapped from restive Swat valley of Pakistan are feared to have been
trained by suspected militants for suicide bombing, police said on Monday.
Police officials say they fear that militants have kidnapped the boys to use them for subversive activities.
Four teenagers from the Taran, Gharo, and Aligram areas have gone missing from the hostel of the
Excellence Academy of Education, Kabal. The Kabal police have registered an FIR. Three of the missing
boys were from Aligram and one each was from Taran and Kalu Dagai.
Unidentified assailants blow up school in Khost
Syed Jamal Asifkhel - Mar 27, 2008 - 11:58
KHOST CITY (PAN): A newly-constructed middle school building was blown up by unidentified
miscreants in the southeastern Khost province late Wednesday night, officials said on Thursday.
Armed assailants attacked the school in the Gulam area of the Sabri districts with bombs, as guards offered
Isha (night) prayers inside the building, the headmaster told Pajhwok Afghan News.
Muhammad Shoaib said the gunmen, who placed two powerful explosive devices inside the school, took out
the security guards with them. The watchmen were freed soon after the explosions, confirmed by Governor
Arsala Jamal.
Around 220 boys and girls were enrolled in the school, whose construction was completed at a cost of
112,000 dollars some months back. "Our pupils will again have to study under tents," the principal lamented.
Director Education Aziz Ahmed Hashmi, in a brief chat with this news agency, said he would ask tribal
elders and councils - tasked with protecting schools - about the bomb attack.
24
Unemployment, drought force youth out of Samangan
Muhammad Barat - Mar 27, 2008 - 15:48
IBAK (PAN): In search of employment hundreds of youths leave northern Samangan province to the
neighboring regions to help gain money and make ends meet.
There were no employment opportunities and any projects to attract workers, the youths complain, on the
other hand current drought caused the locals in this Northern Province to sell their animals on through away
prices and go where they can help their families living.
Nazar Muhammad, one of the fifty resident of Dar-e-Sof district of the province who made it to provincial
capital Ibak and were destined to capital Kabul, told Pajhwok Afghan News:" I am father of six, we had
nothing to eat, my farmland went dry due to lack of rain, " I am going to Kabul now, Allah knows if I can
find a labor to gain money."
Saifurrahman Samit district chief of Dar-e-Sof confirmed about 300 youths left for Kabul, Kandahar and
Helmand provinces for work on daily basis, the youths leave one elder back at the village and go for search
of labor."
Unemployment had also increased the number of youths to join Afghan National Army, he added, only
around ten had joined ANA in the past but due to lack of labor around over 300 had currently turned to ANA
recruitment centers.
Alhaj Saraj-ud-din head of the provincial council expressed concerns saying over 2000 youths left for other
provinces and even to Pakistan and Iran during last 20 days for work.
"People will face famine and consequently human catastrophe unless government provides job opportunities
to people." He warned.
90 percent rain fed and 30 percent irrigated farmland had suffered lack of water and irrigation, Noor
Muhammad deputy provincial agriculture department director said.
There were 63000 hectors rain fed and 14000 hectors irrigated farmlands were in this province, he added.
Bassirat 28 mars 2008
Afghanistan : 6,2 millions d’enfants ont retrouvé le chemin de l’école
Une semaine après la rentrée des classes dans la partie nord du pays, l’heure est au premier bilan. Selon le
porte-parole du ministère de l’Éducation, Hamid Elmi, plus de 500 000 nouveaux élèves ont intégré le
système scolaire dans les régions du nord et du centre. Le nombre d’enfants scolarisés atteint désormais le
chiffre de 6,2 millions, contre un million en 2003. Près de la moitié des enfants afghans, en grande partie des
filles, ne sont cependant pas scolarisés, selon les Nations Unies. Dans le sud du pays, la rébellion empêche
près de 300 000 enfants de se rendre à l’école.
Pajhwok 2 aveil 2008
Gunmen attack school in Maidan Wardak
Pajhwok Reporter - Apr 2, 2008 - 12:14
KABUL (PAN): Unidentified gunmen attacked a school, setting alight its tents, carpets and stationery store
in Syedabad district of the central Maidan Wardak province, a hotbed of Taliban-linked militancy, officials
said on Wednesday.
School headmaster Moharar, speaking over the telephone to Pajhwok Afghan News from the area, said
smoke billowed from the tents for hours after the overnight attack. Teachers and students were saddened to
see the building ransacked, he added.
The principal, who blamed Taliban insurgents for the incident, said his staff and pupils felt shell-shocked
over what had happened to their school in Shash Kala area. The enemies of knowledge did not want the
rising generation to receive education, he observed.
25
But the militants rejected the allegation levelled against them by the headmaster and said that torching
schools was not their policy. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, condemning the attack, argued dozens
of schools were operational in areas under their sway.
Giving an eyewitness account, Ansarul Momineen School watchman Muhammad Alam said the attack
happened at 9.00pm. Some 20 hooded gunmen set fire to the tents and store. We were beaten up before being
thrown out of our room, he added.
700 Afghans killed by mines, explosives last year
S. Mudassir Ali Shah - Apr 4, 2008 - 13:32
KABUL (PAN): The United Nations Mine Action Programme in Afghanistan (UNMAPA) head has claimed
great progress has been made over the last six years in clearing the war-devastated country of landmines
Mine action initiatives had cleared more than one billion square metres of land for all Afghans across
Afghanistan, one of the most heavily-mined countries in the world, UNMAPA Dr Haider Reza said on
Friday
"More than 350,000 anti-personnel mines, more than 19,000 anti-tank mines and millions of pieces of other
explosive elements have now been destroyed, Reza said in a statement UNAMA mailed to Pajhwok Afghan
News.
Mines and explosives killed over six hundred Afghans last year, an average of 50 people every month, the
statement added. This figure is too high and we must all continue to work together to ensure that we reduce
the number of people killed, injured and maimed by landmines in Afghanistan."
The UNMAPA has provided mine-risk education to 17 million Afghans over the past 18 years in a country
where over 2,300 communities still are affected by more than 789 million square metres of known
minefields. Half of the victims of mines or unexploded ordinance are under the age of 18.
Coalition says insurgents blow up Paktika school
Pajhwok Reporter - Apr 6, 2008 - 15:27
KABUL (PAN): Insurgents blew up a school built by Afghan citizens and sponsored by Coalition forces in
the southeastern Paktika province, the US military said.
Luckily the school was not in session at the time of the attack, and no one was hurt in the blast, the coalition
said in a statement issued from the Bagram Airbase on Sunday.
Afghan police responded to the incident and began an investigation, speaking to villagers and collecting
evidence, the press release added.
"Villagers told the police and Coalition forces that a man with his face veiled exited a taxi in front of the
school. The explosion occurred approximately 20 minutes after the taxi departed," according to the
statement.
The coalition accused the militants of destroying schools and threatening to murder teachers in an attempt to
undermine government efforts to provide a better education for Afghan youth.
"Last year, we lost 220 students and teachers in the violence," the press release quoted Afghan education
ministry spokesman Hamid Elmi as saying. The ministry and Coalition forces plan to build more than 1,100
schools in 2009.
Afghanistan : une école incendiée dans la province de Koundouz
Des hommes armés non identifiés ont incendié un collège et coupé les oreilles de l’homme affecté à sa
surveillance, a rapporté l’agence de presse Pajhwok. L’incident s’est produit en fin de semaine dernière dans
le district d’Imam Sahib. Le collège accueillait environ 600 élèves sous des tentes.
Avec Pajhwok
26
Two children released after payment of huge ransom
Ahmad Shah Saber - Apr 12, 2008 - 17:55
ZARANJ (PAN): Two abducted children released after paying huge ransom in western Farah province.
Abdul Ghafor, district chief of Joyien told Pajhwok Afghan News armed men abducted two brothers 11 and
13 two months back on road to Farah city.
He said both children were released in exchange of huge ransom on Saturday.
Ghafor said police wanted to release the children without ransom, but the parents had the fear that their
children will be killed.
District chief did not say anything about the amount of money; however a relative of the family Muhammad
Sediq said the two brothers were released for two million afghanis.
He said the abductors were threatening if the money was not provided they would kill the two brothers.
District chief said the father of two brothers who was a police officer was abducted and killed by armed men
last year.
Militants torch school in Kapisa
Ahmad Javid Javid - Apr 14, 2008 - 18:20
MAHMUDRAQI (PAN): Militants mishandled the school personnel and guards before setting ablaze a
middle school in Nijrab district of central Kapisa province early Monday.
Sultan Muhammad Safi district chief of Nijrab told Pajhwok Afghan News armed Taliban tied the guards
and the personnel and set Abdul Salam Shaheed school ablaze at around 4am on Monday.
The locals rushed to rescue the school in the arson attack preventing the fire to engulf other parts of the
building, he added, three classrooms and an administration office were gutted in the attack.
He blamed enemies of the government and education for the attack on the middle school.
Major. Gen Matiullah Safi police chief of Kapisa province confirmed the arson attack on school and blamed
Taliban for the episode.
None had been arrested so far, he added, they were trying to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to book.
Qari Ahmadi who introduces himself as Taliban spokesman in Tagab district of the province claimed the
responsibility for the attack; he claimed they carried out the attack as the girls were studying in this building.
Taliban had banned girls' education during their regime in the entire country.
Nijrab district education officer Qari Mayel said over 600 students most of them girls studied in the school.
Pakistan : l’évacuation du camp de réfugiés de Jalozai a commencé
Mardi, les forces de sécurité pakistanaises ont commencé l’évacuation du camp de réfugiés de Jalozai, à 35
km au sud-ouest de Peshawar, où vivent 80 000 réfugiés afghans. Les autorités pakistanaises considèrent que
le camp est sous l’influence du Hezb-e Islami du chef rebelle Gôlbouddine Hekmatyâr, tout comme le camp
de Shamshatou. Le camp de Jalozai est un terrain de recrutement idéal, 75 % de ses habitants ayant moins de
28 ans.
Les réfugiés enregistrés auprès des autorités pakistanaises pourront résider encore pendant trois ans au
Pakistan. Au-delà, ils seront susceptibles d’être expulsés vers l’Afghanistan. Or, selon la commission
pakistanaise chargée des réfugiés afghans, plus de la moitié des habitants du camp de Jalozai sont nés au
Pakistan.
Avec Pajhwok et The Washington Post
27
Afghanistan : deux écoles incendiées dans la province du Logar
À quelques dizaines de kilomètres au sud de Kaboul, dans la province du Logar, des militants ont incendié
deux écoles mixtes. Les établissements accueillaient les filles le matin et les garçons l’après-midi.
Au cours d’un autre incident qui s’est produit dimanche soir dans la province de Ghazni, un directeur d’école
et deux enseignants ont été enlevés par des rebelles.
Avec AFP
AFP, 22 avril 2008
Deux écoles mixtes incendiées dans le logar
AFGHANISTAN: DEUX éCOLES MIXTES INCENDIéES PAR DES RADICAUX ISLAMISTES
Des extrémistes islamistes ont incendié deux écoles mixtes dans la nuit de lundi à mardi près de Kaboul, a
annoncé la police.
Par ailleurs, les insurgés talibans, qui avaient banni les filles des écoles quand ils étaient au pouvoir entre
1996 et 2001, ont revendiqué mardi l'enlèvement ce week-end, dans le centre du pays, d'un directeur d'école
et de deux enseignants.
Les deux écoles attaquées dans la nuit sont situées près de la petite bourgade de Logar, à 50 km au sud de la
capitale afghane, selon la police qui a accusé les "ennemis de l'Afghanistan", l'expression qu'elle affectionne
pour désigner les talibans.
Dans la première, les assaillants ont roué de coups le directeur et l'on attaché avant d'incendier
l'établissement qui comprenait huit classes, a indiqué à l'AFP l'adjoint au chef de la police locale, Abdul
Majeed Latifi. Le toit s'est effondré.
A peu près au même moment, une autre école était incendiée non loin de là. La police et les habitants ont pu
éteindre le feu à temps et une seule classe, ainsi que le bureau du directeur, ont été endommagés, selon M.
Latifi.
"Il s'agissait aussi d'une école mixte où les garçons étudient le matin et les filles l'après-midi", a précisé
l'officier.
Les écoles et les enseignants afghans sont des cibles privilégiées des talibans, qui mènent une insurrection
sanglante depuis qu'ils ont été chassés du pouvoir fin 2001 par une coalition militaire emmenée par les EtatsUnis.
Les violences se sont considérablement intensifiées ces deux dernières années malgré la présence de quelque
70.000 soldats étrangers de deux forces internationales, l'une de l'Otan, l'autre sous commandement
américain.
En 2007, 220 élèves et enseignants ont été tués dans ces violences, selon le ministère de l'Education.
Et selon l'UNICEF, 236 écoles ont été attaquées l'année dernière et déjà 23 depuis le début de 2008.
Dimanche soir, des hommes armés ont kidnappé un directeur d'école à Ghazni, un bastion des talibans dans
le centre du pays, selon les autorités locales. Ils l'ont forcé à révéler l'adresse de deux enseignants et les ont
aussi enlevés.
Le principal porte-parole des talibans, Zabihullah Mujahed, a revendiqué ces enlèvements dans un entretien
au téléphone avec l'AFP.
url : http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-35163565@7-60,0.html
Kidnapping cases on the rise in Ghazni
GHAZNI CITY (PAN): Suspected militants abducted two youngsters in separate incidents in southern
Ghazni province, security officials said Monday.
Salih Muhammad Masaud police chief of Qarabagh district of the province told Pajhwok Afghan News
Taliban fighters kidnapped son of a headmaster of Zarsang High School here today.
They had launched an investigation into the incident but were yet to find out the culprits.
28
Outlaws stopped a car and picked the youngster, he added, fate of the abducted was yet to be known, he
added.
An official of the provincial education department on condition of anonymity introduced headmaster of the
high school as Muhammad Esa Ahmadi but said it was yet unknown why and who kidnapped his son.
There is no immediate comment on the episode from Taliban.
By the same token unidentified gunmen snatched son of a local trader in Ghazni city, Zia Wali Zadran
spokesman for the provincial governor told Pajhwok Afghan News Taliban were involved in the crime.
The captors had contacted the family of their captive and had demanded for 500,000 dollars ransom for
release of the abducted.
Unidentified gunmen believed to be Taliban abducted two teachers and a cleaner of Arezo middle school
here, fate of the abducted were not known so far.
Bombing kills woman, injures children in Laghman
JALALABAD (PAN): An hour bombardment left one woman killed two children wounded and a large
number of animals perished in the eastern Laghman province early on Tuesday morning, officials said.
The bombing took place in Sinzali and Badpakh areas bordering with the eastern Sarobi district of the capital
Kabul around 40-kilometres away from Mehtarlam the capital city of the province. The bombing started at
8:00am and lasted for an hour said a tribal elder Muhammad Wazir, a resident of Badpakh area.
"Here is no Al-Qaeda and no Taliban militants hiding in the area but we don't know why the foreigners bomb
the area" said Muhammad Agha another resident of the same area.
Deputy police chief Col. Najibullah Hotak has also confirmed the bombing but he said he has no information
about the main cause of bombing. Dr. Shafiq Hamdam spokesman for US-led coalition troops in the eastern
zone has also showed unawareness about the cause of the bombing.
Pajhwok 4 mai 2008
Girls school torched in Swat valley
PESHAWAR (PAN): Some unidentified armed men wearing military uniform set at fire Government Girls
Higher Secondary School at Charbagh area in Swat district in Pakistan, sources said on Sunday.
They said that a strong group of over 80 persons wearing military uniforms torched Government Girls
Higher Secondary School at Chabagh area here, as a result five rooms of the school were gutted and all the
furniture of the school burnt, however no loss of life have so far been reported in the incident.
Pajhwok 4 mai 2008
Insecurity keeps 40,000 children off the school in Kandahar
KANDAHAR CITY, (PAN): Officials in the southern volatile Kandahar province say 137 schools have been
closed down here, depriving some 40,000 children of education due to the ongoing insurgency .
Head of the education department of Kandahar, Muhammad Anwar, told Pajhwok Afghan News that out of
360 existing schools there, 232 were open and the rest were closed due to increasing insecurity .
He said all the schools which were being closed by force were located in volatile districts where Taliban's
attacks and bombings had hindered school children, teachers and administrative workers to attend .
He said numerous schools were burnt by militants in the past few months that also contributed to more
schools to be closed under threats from the Taliban.
Anwar said he was talking to tribal elders of the districs, members of the provincial council and clerics to
help open the schools .
He said tribal elders of Shahwalikot and Khariz districts have already launched efforts to reopen the schools
and had some success so far .
The education chief added that reconstruction of new schools was also going well at the same time. Anwar
added that 112 schools were to be rebuilt soon and that 51 of them were already in the final touches .
The education department head said 112,900 children were going to schools this year, out of that 34,500
were girls .
29
He also said the education ministry has planned building one madrassa (Islamic seminary) in 2008 for each
district of Kandahar. Anwar added that construction of the madrassas in Panjwayee, Arghandab and Spin
Boldak districts have already started .
Tribal elders and local people have welcomed the government's plan to build madrassas for them and believe
that this will help prevent the local youth to go to outside from where they would bring hardline ideologies.
Mentioning the problems the education sector faces in Kandahar, Anwar said one of the biggest problems
was lack of competent teachers .
Pajhwok 5 mai 2008
School building blown up in Paktika
KHOST CITY (PAN): A school has been blown up and its books and equipments have been burnt in the
southeastern Paktika province by unidentified gunmen, officials said on Monday.
Mastak Khan, spokesman for the 203 Thunder Military Corps, told Pajhwok Afghan News unidentified
gunmen have blown up the school building after planting three bombs in its campus in Barmal district of the
volatile province late on Saturday night.
He added the school building and all the books and equipments have been torched. Investigation has been
started about the incident but no one has been captured on the suspicion of the incident yet, he continued.
Pajhwok 17 mai 2008
Unidentified gunmen torch girls' school in Logar
PUL-I-ALAM (PAN): The newly inaugurated girls' school of Porak village in central Logar province was set
ablaze by armed insurgents on Friday night.
Kamaluddin Zadran, director education department of the province told Pajhwok Afghan News on Saturday
the school was set on fire at 1:00 am.
He said two administrative rooms, the guard room and the library have been destroyed.
He said the guard was hand cuffed by the armed people and transferred to a far forest.
Fazl Ahmad, a guard of the school present on the occasion of the incident said about 20 masked armed men
put fire to school.
He said armed men broke into the school, tied the guards and transferred them in a car to a forest.
He added the armed men had beaten them up and threatened them to quit the jobs other wise it will cost their
lives.
Fazl Ahmad said they stayed all night near the river in forest and by the morning locals opened them.
The newly appointed principal of the school Omar Jan said 900 students have been enrolled to the school but
about 150 were present on Saturday.
The insurgents have also written threats on the outer wall of the school saying that girls should not be sent to
school afterwards, otherwise they will be killed on the way to school.
An official of Logar police said they received reports from the education department head about the burning
of school, but they did not send police due to fear of ambush.
Zabiullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman said the school was not set to fire by Taliban.
He considered it an action of those who want to defame Taliban.
According to officials of education department in the province four other girls schools have been set on fire
during current year.
30
School blown up, two road workers injured in Logar
Pajwhok Shahpur Arab - Jun 1, 2008 - 15:42
PUL-I-ALAM (PAN): As unidentified gunmen blew up a school building, two road workers were shot
injured by militants in the central Logar province, an official said on Sunday.
Deputy Director of Education Department Muhammad Sadiq Stanikzai told Pajhwok Afghan News that
unknown assailants blew up the Pangram High School late Saturday.
Hands of the guards were tied behind their backs before they were forced out and the building was blown up
in the volatile Surkh district, said the official, who reckoned the school suffered heavy damage.
Meanwhile, two workers of a road construction company were wounded by unknown assailants in the same
district. Dawood who suffered injuries in the assault said: "All workers ran pell-mell as a result of fire at
approximately 7:00am."
In a critical condition, both the wounded hailed from the Kharwar district, said Dr. Ahmadullah Nalan of the
local civil hospital.
Afghanistan : une école détruite et deux ouvriers tués dans la province du
Logar
Bassirat 2 juin
Samedi, des hommes armés non identifiés ont détruit un lycée dans le district de Sorkh, dans la province du
Logar, au sud de Kaboul, ont annoncé les responsables locaux du ministère de l’éducation. Au préalable, ils
avaient neutralisé les deux gardes chargés de surveiller l’établissement scolaire.
Par ailleurs, deux ouvriers travaillant pour une entreprise de travaux publics ont été blessés par des tirs
d’armes à feu dans le même district.
Avec Pajhwok
Girls' school torched in Baghlan
Pajwhok Sher Muhammad Jahish - Jun 7, 2008 - 19:21
PUL-I-KHUMRI (PAN): Unidentified gunmen torched a girls' school in Khinjan district of the northern
Baghlan province, local people and officials said on Saturday.
The Abdul Wasi Shaheed Secondary High School for girls was set on fire by a group of armed men late last
night, said Haji Gul, a local elder.
The school was operating in several tents.
He said three of the tents that formed a basic part of the school were torched after the gunmen poured oil on
them.
Guards of the schools were threatened and were forced to let the gunmen enter and burn the tents. The
guards were told if the school was reopened, lives of teachers and schoolgirls might be at risk, according to
Haji Gul.
Head of the Baghlan education department Muhammad Sarwar Wasifi said only one tent recently
contributed by the Provincial Reconstruction Team was burnt in the fire.
He said the gunmen tied up hands and legs of the two guards of the school and then set fire to the tents.
Some 700 girls were attending the school.
School torching has been rare in northern Afghanistan, but it increased recently. Last week a boys' school
was burnt in Charshanghoy district of Faryab province by gunmen suspected to be linked to the Taliban.
The government officials point finger at the Taliban for the crime, however the Taliban have never admitted
that they are behind attacks on education institutions.
31
Taliban's threats shrink attendance in schools
Pajhwok correspondent - Jun 7, 2008 - 20:33
GHAZNI CITY (PAN): Four girls' schools are about to close down their operations due to decrease in
number of students and staffers following threatening pamphlets issued by Taliban in the southern Ghazni
province.
School officials said the letters pasted on the school gates by Taliban at night had threatened students to
death in the southern city of Ghazni a week back.
Jahan Malika is one of the four schools in this city where there has been considerable decrease in the number
of students and teachers.
Behishta a ninth grade student said the number of students in her class decreased from 50 to 12 in a week
time after the threats, similar was the case about the teaching staff, she added: "we studied only four hours
during last one week."
Joulina Faizi head of the provincial council to inspect schools said the threats had scared both teachers and
students. They had talked with the education and security organs on the issue she added.
Ustad Habibur Rahman, head of the provincial council worried on the deteriorating educational condition.
Ten out of 50 schools in the city of southern Ghazni province were girls' schools with only four of them
closed down so far.
Sayed Ibrar Hanon while admitted threats to students refused closure of any school in the southern city he
added, there has been decrease in the number of students and staffers but the schools have not been closed
down.
Only 13 schools across the province have been closed by the enemies of government during the last few
years.
Afghanistan : démantèlement d’un gang qui enlevait et violait des enfants
Bassirat Jeudi 12 juin
Les services secrets afghans ont annoncé jeudi le démantèlement à Kaboul d’un groupe de quatre criminels
accusés d’avoir enlevé et violé cinq enfants de moins de douze ans. « Ils enlevaient des enfants, les violaient
et enregistraient les images des viols pour le compte de réseaux avec lesquels ils étaient en contact », a
affirmé Sayyid Ansari, porte-parole de la Direction nationale de la sécurité (NDS), au cours d’une
conférence de presse.
Par ailleurs dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi, le chef d’un autre groupe criminel spécialisé dans l’enlèvement
crapuleux a été tué et deux personnes ont été arrêtées au cours d’une opération de sauvetage d’un otage, a
indiqué Ansari. Dimanche, le chef d’un autre groupe de ravisseurs a été arrêté avec deux complices, toujours
à Kaboul, selon lui.
Avec AFP
School building damaged in Khost
Pajhwok Saboor Mangal - Jun 12, 2008 - 17:51
KHOST CITY (PAN): Unknown armedmen detonated a newly constructed school in Baak district of
southeastern Khost province.
Sayed Musa Majroh, media officer of education department in Khost province told Pajhwok Afghan News
unknown armed men detonated a girls' and boys school in Badi Molayan village of the district on
Wednesday night which destroyed three classrooms.
He said the school was constructed at a cost of $32000, granted from World Bank which was not yet
formally inaugurated.
However Muhibullah, a residence of the area said six classrooms of the school were destroyed in the
explosion.
He said 300 boys and girls were studying in the tents and under trees due to the destruction of school.
The tents and library of the school were burnt twice in the past.
According education minister Muhammad Hanif Attmar, 53 schools were burnt last year and about 187
schools in 2006 and 85 teachers and students were killed.
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Boy killed as Taliban attack Ghazni
Pajhwok Sher Ahmad Haidar - Jun 16, 2008 - 17:55
GHAZNI CITY (PAN): A boy was killed and another wounded in two separately rocket attacks by Taliban
militants late on Sunday night in the troubled southern province of Ghazni, officials said on Monday.
Deputy police chief Col. Muhammad Zaman told Pajhwok Afghan News the Taliban militants attacked the
lawless Muqor and Rashidan districts late on Sunday night.
He added there were no casualties caused to the policemen where a small boy was killed in attack carried out
at Rashidan district that was captured by insurgents some 20 days back who took the district chief along with
eight policemen with them and their fate is still unknown.
Col. Barakatullah Muqor district police chief said the militants fired eight mortar shells at the district
headquarters where another small boy suffered injuries after one of the shells landed in a house near the
district headquarters at 8:00pm.
The small boy wounded in the overnight attack was in stable condition where the police and the district
headquarters received no casualties and damages, the police chief said adding the police and Afghan
National Army (ANA) soldiers also launched a retaliatory fire but he did not has information about
casualties caused to the rebels.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has claimed responsibility for the two attacks but he had no
exact information about police casualties
Taliban close schools in Qarabagh
Pajhwok Sher Ahmad Haidar - Jun 16, 2008 - 17:53
KABUL (PAN): Some 35,000 students in Qarabagh district of the southern Ghazni province have been offschool since more than a week after the Taliban banned all schools there.
Local officials said on Monday that they were threatened by the Taliban to close schools; otherwise their
lives will be in danger.
Abdul Qayum, principal of Sultan Mahmood High School, the largest one in Qarabagh, said a Taliban
commander called him and ordered to close his school or be ready for attacks in a short time. He said all
other schools in the district were similarly threatened by phone calls from Taliban commanders or with direct
intervention of the militants.
All 55 schools of Qarabagh, some 60 kilometers south from Ghazni city, have been closed off since 10 days.
Qarabagh district chief Habibullah Bashi said local tribal elders were talking to the Taliban to reopen the
schools.
He said the Taliban have now entered into war against the public after failing to defeat the government in its
attacks.
Muhammad Rahim Tarakai, a local elder in Qarabagh, said they have discussed the issue with the Taliban
commanders in the area, but they have not taken any action yet.
Earlier, the Taliban have closed all schools in the neighboring Andar district of Ghazni.
Ghazni is one of the most insecure provinces in the south
School torched in Logar
Pajhwok Shahpor Arab - Jun 21, 2008 - 14:03
PUL-E-ALAM (PAN): Unidentified gunmen set ablaze a school in central Logar province, officials said
Saturday.
The school named as Shah Abdul Fatih was torched on Friday night, Kamaluddin Zadran education director
of Logar province told Pajhwok Afghan News the gunmen first tied up and beaten two guards of the school
and afterwards torched the school.
Administration office of the school had been totally gutted in the arson attack, he added.
Excoriating the assault, he blamed enemies of the education and the country for the attack.
Around 900 boys and girls from 15 villages of the district studied in this school, he lamented, saying the
assailants had warned teachers and students to avoid school otherwise they will risk their lives. The incident
caused only 40% of the students to show up in their classes, he added.
None had been arrested thus far for the attack, a local security official on condition of anonymity told this
news agency.
33
About seven schools have been attacked by the enemies in this province during last one year.
Three schoolgirls injured in Kunduz suicide attack
Pajhwok Abdul Matin Sarfaraz - Jul 6, 2008 - 15:19
KUNDUZ CITY (PAN): Three schoolgirls were wounded in a suicide attack on soldiers of the German
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Kunduz Sunday morning.
The attack took place in Dobandi area of Chardara district, where the bomber rammed his explosives-packed
car into a PRT convoy, the provincial police chief informed Pajhwok Afghan News.
Brig. Gen. Abdul Rahman Aqtash said the attacker was killed and one PRT vehicle destroyed in the
explosion that injured three school students. One of the wounded schoolgirls is reported to be in a critical
condition.
Malim Nazir, administrative head of Chardara, said the PRT troops had come to discuss security-related
issues with him and the district police chief. The team came under suicide attack on its way back to the
Kunduz City.
Nazir added one vehicle belonging to the PRT was comprehensively destroyed and a roadside electricity line
damaged, cutting off power supply to the district.
But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the bomber, a fighter of the movement, destroyed four PRT
jeeps and killed 12 troops. He claimed the explosion was carried out by Musa, a resident of Chardara.
It was the third suicide attack against the Kunduz-based German PRT during the current year and 62nd in
Afghanistan since the beginning of 2008.
Two cops killed, girls' school torched
Pajhwok Sher Ahmad Haidar and Shahpur Arab - Jul 9, 2008 - 19:07
GHAZNI CITY & ASADABAD (PAN): Two police and seven Taliban fighters were killed in fresh violence
in the southern Ghazni province while a girl school was torched in the central Logar province, officials said
on Wednesday.
Officials in Qarabagh district of Ghazni said the Taliban killed two cops in an attack on their checkpoint this
morning.
Police chief of Ghazni, Colonel Abdul Ghafoor said the Taliban attacked the police checkpoint in Mirak
town, killing two cops and wounding one.
Six attackers were killed in shooting of the police in response, said Ghafoor.
He said another police was wounded and a Taliban fighter was killed in Nawrozkhel village of the same
district today.
Ghafoor added that a third police was wounded in the neighboring Andar districts Sinai village on the
Ghazni-Paktika highway.
He said a Taliban fighter attacked a police checkpoint and escaped.
However, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said two policemen were killed in the Andar attack.
In the central Logar province, unidentified armed men torched a girl school late last night.
A local security official not wishing to be named told Pajhwok the gunmen handcuffed the guards at 11:30
pm last night and then set the school on fire in Charkh district.
He said 500 girls were attending the secondary school in Shash Qala village.
47 civilians killed in US-led strikes in Nangarhar
Pajhwok correspondent - Jul 11, 2008 - 20:49
JALALABAD (PAN): An official investigation has found that US-led air strikes a week ago struck a
wedding and killed 47 Afghan civilians, most of them women and children, officials said.
The US-led coalition had said that only militants died in the July 6 strikes in the mountains of eastern
Nangarhar province.
A nine-member team appointed by President Hamid Karzai to look into the Nangarhar incident found that
only civilians were killed in remote Deh Bala district, said the head of the mission, Burhanullah Shinwari.
34
"We found that 47 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the air strikes and another nine were
wounded," said Shinwari, who is also the deputy speaker of senate.
Two young Taliban killed, four teachers wounded
Pajhwok Sayed Jamal Asif Khil - Jul 17, 2008 - 17:01
GARDIZ (PAN): Two young Taliban and four teachers of a religious seminary wounded during the study
when armed Taliban and security forces clashed on Gardiz-Khost highway.
The clash took place in Wazi Zadran district of Paktia province on Thursday morning.
District chief of Wazi Zadran told Pajhwok Afghan News that convey of ammunition and its security guards
were attacked in Ghawargi area.
He added during the clash a religious seminary also came under fire.
The district chief said two students of the seminary were killed and four teachers wounded.
He said the killed students were 12 and 15 years old.
Zabiullah Mujahed, Taliban spokesman said Taliban attacked convey of Afghan forces and destroyed three
vehicles and killed 12 troops.
He showed unawareness over the casualties to students of the seminary.
But the district chief said one vehicle was torched but no one has been hurt.
Two minors die in Qarabagh blast
Pajhwok Habibur Rahman Ibrahimi - Jul 22, 2008 - 16:38
KABUL (PAN): At least two minors died when a bomb exploded in Qarabagh district of this capital on
Monday night, security officials said Tuesday.
Brig Gen Ali Shah Paktiawal director of crimes investigations department in the Kabul police headquarters
told Pajhwok Afghan News the explosion was caused by explosives left in the area from past. The blast had
occurred in Dasht-e-Ali of the district, he added, police had reached to the area right after the bang sound of
the blast and handed the dead bodies of the children to their families.
Muhammad Ayub police chief of Qarabagh district told Pajhwok Afghan News the blast killed 12 year old
Muhammad Zahir and 13 years old Wakdari both from same family.
Paktiawal also informed arresting a Pakistani national for suspected connection to terrorist activities, he said,
police arrested a suspected person who was roaming west of the airport.
Police in Kabul also arrested an armed man who had threatened to kill another resident in this city, police
officials concluded.
Majority of schools closed in Helmand
Pajhwok Zainullah Stanekzai - Jul 24, 2008 - 19:45
LASHKARGAH (PAN): Over 169 schools of around 227 schools have been closed and 59 are not
functioning normally in southern province of Helmand, provincial governor said on Thursday.
Addressing to a tribal meeting held for reopening schools in the lawless province Gulab Mangal said his
province having no educated people that are why violence was on the rise. The province would not face such
violence if schools were opened for children, he pointed out.
He promised that all the schools will open at any cost and will bring various changes in education sector of
the province from start of the new education year that will start on September 5th.
"School must be reopened for schoolchildren if it is by talking with the militants or if by the help of tribal
gatherings" he said. More than 4000 students are being deprived of education, according to the information
of education department.
The tribal gathering held for the reopening of schools in the restive province have participated by 400 tribal
elders, government officials and religious scholars. Fifteen schools have even closed in the provincial capital,
Lashkargah, said education director Sher Agha Safi.
All the schools are not closed by the anti government movement of Taliban guerrillas but some schools are
being closed by the area people because of low salaries to the schoolteachers and because of other problems,
said Mukhtar Ahmad, head of Hajj and Auqaf department.
35
Two kids killed as ISAF opens fire on a car in Kandahar
Pajhwok Bashir Ahmad Nadem - Jul 28, 2008 - 19:49
KABUL (PAN): NATO forces killed two children and wounded a man in the southern Kandahar province as
the vehicle they were traveling in ignored the ' stay away' warnings.
A statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said the vehicle
was being driven in a threatening manner and ignored the repeated warnings.
ISAF was conducting a security patrol when they were approached by the vehicle, said the statement .
The vehicle was directed to keep its distance but it did not comply. ISAF soldiers gave hand, arm and audio
signals as well as flashing light signals to stop. When the vehicle was 10 metres away and still approaching
rapidly, the ISAF soldiers, fearing an attack, fired on it, said the statement .
The injured civilians were treated by ISAF medical personnel at the scene. An adult male, who had suffered
serious wounds, was taken by the local police to Mirwais Hospital for further checks, the statement added.
ISAF called the incident a tragic happening and said its soldiers were trained to take the appropriate steps to
minimize civilian casualties, but they must take action to protect themselves when threatened .
ISAF deeply regrets the outcome of this incident which will be fully investigated, said the statement.
Most of the troops based under the ISAF framework in Kandahar are Canadian soldiers.
Civilian casualties mostly caused by military operations of foreign troops have become a sensitive issue that
sparked widespread resentment and demonstrations in the past one year .
Earlier this month, up to 60 civilians was killed in bombings in the eastern Nangarhar and Nuristan
provinces.
Afghan authorities have frequently warned of consequences of the civilian casualties and asked foreign
troops to act in coordination with local government officials while conducting military operations in an area
Primary school torched in Kunduz
KUNDUZ CITY (PAN): Unidentified gunmen torched a primary school in northern Kunduz province on
Sunday night, security officials said Monday.
Brig Gen Abdul Rahman Aqtash security chief of the provincial police headquarters told Pajhwok Afghan
News the school was set ablaze on Monday morning.
There were four tents in the school yard and all were gutted in the arson attack, he blamed the enemies of
government for the attack.
They had sent a delegation to the area to investigate into the incident.
Muhammad Sarwar deputy director of the education department in the province said the school had over 200
students.
Zabihullah Mujahid a Taliban spokesman rejected their fighters' involvement in the assault on educational
institution but said they were against the curriculum set by the government.
Others commit such arson attack on educational institutions to defame Taliban, he claimed.
German PRT based in the province has promised to construct the school besides providing furniture to it.
Another school set ablaze in Kunduz
KUNDUZ CITY (PAN): Unidentified gunmen set ablaze a school in the Imam Saheb district of the northern
Kunduz province, a senior official said on Wednesday.
District chief Mualim Juma told Pajhwok Afghan News the Gunbad primary school, where more than 300
students were enrolled, was completely destroyed.
He said the students did not come to the school today in the wake of the arson attack. If an alternative was
not found soon, the pupils would be forced to discontinue their studies, he warned.
Juma viewed the burning of the school as the handiwork of government opponents, a term used for Taliban
insurgents. This is the second school torched in the last four days in the Kunduz province. A primary school
was burnt in Chardara district of earlier in the week.
Meanwhile, Taliban denied their involvement in torching schools. Although the militants opposed the
present curriculum, their spokesman said, they were averse to burning schools. Zabihullah Mujahid argued
the schools were torched by the elements who wanted to defame Taliban.
36
According to the Education Ministry, more than 185 schools were torched during 2007 in various parts of
Afghanistan, an impoverished country with a dismally low literacy rate.
Unknown gunmen torch schoolbooks in Ghazni
Zarghona Salehi - Aug 25, 2008 - 17:43
KABUL (PAN): Unidentified gunmen set on-fire over 100,000 copies of newly printed books that were
planed to be sent to southern Kandahar province in troubled southern province of Ghazni, Education ministry
in a statement said on Monday.
In a statement emailed to Pajhwok Afghan News the officials said the books torched on main KabulKandahar Highway were included religious books and were planed to be distributed to schoolchildren in the
lawless province of Kandahar .
The statement added the torching of schoolbooks is the crime committed by none else but the enemies of
education and Afghanistan. Security forces should start investigation to capture the perpetrators of the
incident statement urged.
The education ministry has called on tribal elders, influential and scholars to help Afghan government in the
sector of education. Sahib Khan administrative head of the lawless Muqar district where the books were
torched has showed unawareness about the incident.
A regional Taliban commander has also condemned the torching of schoolbooks and said they have no
information about the incident.
The books from first class up to class 12th were published with the worth of about 15 million US dollars by
the support of World Bank, United States of America and Danish Government .
This is the first time that unidentified gunmen torched schoolbooks education officials have said that more
than 279 schools have been torched or destroyed by Taliban guerrillas especially in the southern province of
Kandahar.
Teenaged boy killed, ten injured in blast
Munir Ahmad Mujadedi - Aug 31, 2008 - 16:24
KABUL (PAN): A teenager was killed and ten others injured when a gas cylinder exploded in a gas selling
shop at Khairkhana locality of the capital here early Sunday morning.
Initial reports reveal that a boy Ahmad, 15 was killed and ten people were injured in the shop while the shop
has completely been destroyed in the explosion.
The injured were rushed to the nearby hospital where the health condition of the majority of injured was
stated to be precarious.
Majority of the injured people are the poor children who sell gas balloons in the street and had come to the
shop to get it in the shop.
Ten refugee schools closed down in Baluchistan
Syed Shah Saqim - Sep 1, 2008 - 17:33
QUETTA (PAN): Teachers of the Afghan refugee's schools in Loralai area of Baluchistan province of
Pakistan have closed a number of schools, protesting low salaries.
Teachers protest that their salaries must be raised so that they could meet their needs through it. Now they
are paid 5000 rupees for two shifts teaching which they consider too meager an amount in the wake of
galloping price hike.
Last week these teachers in a protest meeting had warned to close down schools from September. 1 if there
salaries were not raised.
Abdullah Jan, an elder of the Ziar Kareez refugee camp urged the donor organization Save the Children to
immediately announce a raise in the salaries of the teachers.
He said that till yet ten refugee schools have been closed down in the camp and if the strike continued the
precious time of the student would be wasted.
Pajhwok Afghan News also tried to contact the officials of Save the Children but they declined to issue any
comment on the incident.
37
Six minors killed, 18 wounded in Ghazni blast
Shir Ahmad Haider - Sep 14, 2008 - 11:17
GHAZNI CITY (PAN): At least six minors were killed and one and half a dozen more sustained injuries
when a newly planted bomb exploded southern Ghazni province.
The blast in the afternoon on Sunday took place on a bridge at Senai village of Andar district.
Abdul Rahim Disiwal district chief of Andar told Pajhwok Afghan News condition of seven of the wounded,
taken to Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Hospital in Ghazni, was critical.
He blamed enemies of the government for the heinous attack, he said, the blast occurred when a group of
children gathered on the small bridge in the area.
The six dead were between 5 to 15 years of age, he said. A local PRT official confirmed receiving the
wounded.
Senai village was 2.5 kilometers from Andar district on Sharan-Ghazni highway. Teenagers have several
times fell prey to the bombing and attacks by militants and foreign troops across the country.
Children worst sufferers in Afghan conflict
Abdul Qadir Munsif and Habib Rahman Ibrahimi – pajhwok Sep 15, 2008 - 17:08
KABUL, (PAN): Forty per cent of the civilian victims of recent military operations and fighting in
Afghanistan are children and women, a local child protection agency said on Sunday.
The Afghan Children Protection Organization (ACPO) said in a statement that among 700 civilians killed in
the past six months in conflict, 40 per cent were children and women.
The organization said it was concerned about the increasing bad effects of the war taking civilian lives.
The ACPO statement added that children were making most of the victims in the recent bombings in
Nuristan, Nangarhar and Herat by foreign troops.
Sixty out of over 90 people killed in air strike in Shindand district of Herat last month were children, said the
statement.
The casualties were caused mostly by clashes in residential areas and bombing of the civilian targets after the
Taliban take shelter there or foreign troops got suspected of it, added the statement.
The organization also condemned the Taliban for burning schools, threatening schoolchildren and their
teachers and depriving them of education.
ACPO asked the Taliban to reopen schools and let children continue their classes.
More than 300 schools have been closed and as many burnt by unidentified armed men believed to be
Taliban in the last three years mostly in southern provinces.
Earlier in July, Radhika Coomaraswamy, special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children
and Armed Conflict, said while visiting Kabul that the conflict had killed, maimed and affected an increasing
number of children in recent years, she said. She said Afghan children were in the worst conditions in the
world.
By/ajr
School building blown up in Paktika
Obaidullah Sarozawal - Sep 18, 2008 - 14:45
SHARANA (PAN): Unidentified gunmen blew up a newly constructed school building in Sar-rawza district
of southeastern Paktika province, officials said Thursday.
Dr Akram Khapulwak governor of Paktika province told Pajhwok Afghan News that assailants laid down
two bombs in the school building and opened fire on the building right after the bang sound of the explosion
leaving huge part of the building destroyed.
Ghulam Rasul a resident of the district told this news agency that the school was inaugurated by the governor
of the provinces few weeks back.
The school was constructed by $140000 budget, the destruction left hundreds of students deprived of shelter
for studying.
None has so far claimed the responsibility for the arson attack on education school which is mostly blamed
and claimed by the Taliban militants.
Conference on children trafficking to be held on Oct, 11
Zarghona Salehi - Sep 29, 2008 - 16:40
KABUL (PAN): The first two day regional conference on law of human trafficking will be held in Kabul on
11 October by IOM.
38
A press release sent to Pajhwok Afghan News by IOM read that the conference is held to communicate the
laws over human trafficking in Afghanistan, Iran Pakistan, Tajikistan and United Arab Emirate.
The press release stated this conference will be a regional opportunity for the countries to share information
over the condition of human trafficking in the countries and the problems they face to prevent trafficking.
According to the press release the goal is to prepare a strategy to prevent the new way of slavery and provide
regional cooperation to fight against this international crime.
The press release added human trafficking is a crime which can severely hurt human life and this dangerous
phenomenon has severely affected Afghanistan and neighboring countries.
Many Afghans, particularly youth and young children are being trafficked to foreign countries particularly to
Iran
Acid attack on school girls in Kandahar
Bashir Ahmad Nadem/Javed Hamim - Nov 12, 2008 - 09:34
KABUL/ KANDAHAR (PAN): Unidentified miscreants attacked 16 schoolgirls of Nazo Ana High School
with acid in Mirwais Mina area of Kandahar city Wednesday morning.
General Rahmatullah Raufi told a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that two persons have been
arrested in connection with the incident.
He added investigations have begun and other involved people will be arrested soon.
The governor condemned the incident and said that they have taken the incident seriously and ordered to
arrest the involved people.
Dr, Sharifa, a doctor at Mirwais hospital told Pajhwok Afghan News six girls were referred to hospital who
were burnt.
In the incident two sisters Atifa, 17, a grade eight student and Jamila, 19, a grade 12 student were also among
the casualties.
Atifa told Pajhwok Afghan News: "we were going to school in the morning, two motorcyclists came to our
way and stopped and threw acid on us"
She said with the acid our veils, clothes were burnt, but the shopkeepers came and covered the girls with
their blankets.
Afghanistan government and education ministry strongly condemned the incident and considered it the
action of the enemies of the country and education.
A press release sent from presidential office said that this action was against the culture and tradition of
Afghans.
The press release added that the enemies can not stop the education of six million children with violence,
because Afghans knows that education in Islam is worship.
The education ministry in a press release also condemned the incident.
The press release said the condition of three girls was not good and the ministry asked the officials of the
hospital to pay serious attention for their health.
Armed Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi told Pajhwok Afghan News that they were not involved in
the incident.
Four teenagers killed in Faryab blast
Zabihullah Ihsas - Nov 12, 2008 - 18:48
MAIMANA (PAN): At least four teenagers who were grazing their animals on a hillside in northern Faryab
province perished when a bomb in the area went off on their hoard in Qaisar district of the province, security
officials said Wednesday.
The victims between 13 to 16 years of age died on the spot, local security forces said.
Col Muhammad Sadiq security chief of Faryab police headquarters told Pajhwok Afghan News the bomb
was newly planted in the area, he opined the bomb exploded from where Faryab based provincial
Reconstruction Teams and police pass by.
He did not role out involvement of the enemies of the peace and stability behind the plot, he believed
militants from Ghormach district of neighboring Badghis province infiltrated to Qaisar district of Faryab
province for disruptive activities.
Taliban fighters, who always claim and are blamed for such attacks by government authorities were yet to
comment on the blast.
Brig. Gen Khalilullah Andarabi police chief of the province confirmed the casualties and said in a similar
attack three months back three children were killed here
39
School students kidnapped from Logar
Shahpur Arab - Nov 19, 2008 - 19:29
PUL-E-ALAM (PAN): Unknown armed men kidnapped three students of two high schools students in
Baraki Barak district of Logar province, on Wednesday.
Deputy Director of Logar province, Mohammad Yasin Ahmadi told Pajhwok Afghan News that the students
of two different high schools in the district were residents of Chalozai village.
He added two of them were students of Ghazi Amanullah Khan High School and the third was student of
Logar High School.
According to him, they were students of class seven, eighth and ninth who were retuning to their homes after
taking exam in their schools, when masked, armed motor cycle riders abducted them.
A small Jerga of local people have been formed in order to find and free the students, he said.
No body has yet accepted responsibility of the abduction.
Taliban Spokesman in the locality, Mulla Momin Hakimi called it action of thieves, and said that they were
not involved in the crime.
Schools have been attacked and burned several times in Logar, but this is first case in which school students
are directly targeted.
School blown up in Khost
Saboor Mangal - Nov 19, 2008 - 19:19
KHOST CITY (PAN): Unidentified people blew up building of a middle school in the southeastern Khost
province late Tuesday night, an official said on Wednesday.
Daulat Khan Qayomi, district chief of Ismailkhel district told Pajhwok Afghan News over 14 classrooms of
the school building were destroyed after being blown up by four bombs.
He said area people and tribal elders had promised them for maintaining security of the school building
before its construction and tribal elders and police have asked local people about failure of maintaining the
security.
According to his information the area people had promised to reconstruct the building without foreign aid.
Provincial education department spokesman Syed Musa Majroh informed the school had over 6000 students.
The school building constructed by financial support of provincial reconstruction team (PRT) was yet to be
formally handed over to education department, Majroh said. However, no one has immediately claimed
responsibility for the incident.
Violence against children on the rise: U.N.
Pajhwok Report - Nov 24, 2008 - 15:47
KABUL (PAN): Violations of children's rights are increasing in Afghanistan with more attacks against
schools, more children killed and more evidence of child sexual abuse, the United Nations said on Sunday.
The report was conducted using a combination of data from agencies working across Afghanistan and
anecdotal reports or allegations of violations against children.
"The report really shows how difficult the situation is and to some degree it is worsening," Hilde F. Johnson,
deputy executive director of the UNICEF agency, told media.
"This goes for several of the violations in particular attacks against schools and health centers, killing and
maiming and grave sexual violence and to some degree recruitment of children (to armed groups)," Johnson
said.
The report, produced by UNICEF for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon mentioned the case of a child,
aged around 12, who was used as a suicide bomber by the Taliban on May 16, 2008.
UNICEF also said Western military operations were killing more children, and pointed to an air strike in July
in which 30 of the 47 civilians killed were children.
The report contained documented cases of Afghan security forces recruiting children aged between 15 and
17, although Johnson said children were rarely abducted and forced into working as soldiers and most were
driven to join up by poverty.
"Where children are orphaned or children are in a situation where they don't have food or they are very poor
and don't have much alternative, then it's very easy to be recruited," Johnson said, ahead of a meeting with
Afghanistan's minister for the interior when she expected to discuss the report's findings.
The Afghan government was involved in the preparations for the report and Johnson said cooperation was
40
good and pointed to the need to also address cultural perceptions of children in Afghanistan.
By tradition in Afghanistan, children over the age of 15 are seen as adults, whereas under international law
they are still children until the age of 18, she said.
One other major concern for UNICEF is sexual abuse against children, particularly boys, a controversial and
taboo subject in Afghanistan, where the tradition of "bacha bazi," which literally means child play, is an ageold practice of young boys being kept as sex slaves by wealthy and powerful men.
Boy bomber: 'free me, I've got exams'
Written by Quqnoos.com
Thursday, 13 November 2008 15:29
Schoolboy error shouldn't stop attempted suicide bomber's timetable
THIS morning, he was a committed jihadist. This afternoon, he wants to go back to school.
Nematullah, 17, was arrested this morning on suspicion of planning a suicide bomb attack on the Company
area of Kabul. The schoolboy, from Maidan Wardak, was encouraged to blow himself up by Mullah Qasim,
a Taliban commnander, police said.
Nematullah drove himself to the capital in a Toyota Town Ace packed with deadly explosives. But the plan
went wrong almost immediately. Nematullah panicked when he saw a police checkpoint and tried to turn
around. Unfortunately for him, he then crashed into another car.
He fled the scene and hid. Police, who had by now found explosives in the crashed minibus, gave chase and
captured the boy.
“My school exams are next week – the government should release me,” Nematullah told Quqnoos.com.
Quqnoos questioned his academic ambition, given that, had his plan succeeded, he would have been dead by
lunchtime on Thursday.
“As I’m alive, it would be nice to pass my exams,” he replied.
AP, 24 novembre 2008
UN: AFGHAN CHILDREN BEING RECRUITED AS FIGHTERS
by EDITH M. LEDERER
UNITED NATIONS – Afghanistan's security forces and insurgent groups are both recruiting children to
serve as fighters and the taliban also is using young people as suicide bombers, U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon said Monday.
He urged all factions to immediately stop exploiting children.
In his first report to the Security Council on the Afghan war's impact on children, Ban said other problems
include sexual abuse of children, especially boys, and a "worrisome increase" in the number of child victims
caused by militant attacks on civilian targets.
He also cited an "ever increasing number of children inadvertently killed during engagements by
international and Afghan forces." He urged U.S., NATO and Afghan troops to implement rules of
engagement that include special measures protecting children.
Ban said monitoring abuses of children in Afghanistan has been difficult because of increasing violence and
the difficulty of obtaining and checking victim and eyewitness accounts. He said much of the available data
is not broken down by age and sex.
"The report focuses on grave violations perpetrated against children in Afghanistan and identifies parties to
the conflict, both state and non-state actors, who commit grave abuses against children," Ban said. "In
particular, the report highlights the fact that children have been recruited and utilized (as fighters) by state
and non-state armed groups ... ."
He said children have been used as soldiers by all factions during 30 years of wars in Afghanistan.
Even though the Afghan government demobilized 7,444 underage soldiers in 2003, there has not been any
monitoring of children vulnerable to recruitment, Ban said.
"Allegations of recruitment of children by armed groups have been received from all regions, particularly
from the south, southeast and east" — areas with the most fighting, he said.
A U.N. study of suicide attacks documented cases of children allegedly used as suicide bombers by the
taliban, he said. "Most of these children were between 15 and 16 years of age and were tricked, promised
money or forced to become suicide bombers."
41
On the government side, Ban said, there are reports of children seen serving in the Afghan National
Auxiliary Police and there are documented cases of young people recruited by the Afghan National Police.
Ban called on Afghan security forces to adopt procedures to verify the age of recruits "and take appropriate
measures to improve the protection of children."
"Grave abuses" of children aren't limited to the battlefield, Ban added.
"Violence against children, specifically of a sexual nature, occurs particularly during times of instability," he
said. "The practice of `bacha-baazi' (boy-play) consists of boys kept cloistered and used for sexual and
harmful social entertainment by warlords and other armed group leaders."
He called on the Afghan government to enact laws to punish sexual violence, implement programs to support
the victims of such abuse and work with U.N. officials to study ways to quell "harmful practices, including
that of bacha-baazi."
Centre d'actualités de l'ONU, 21 novembre 2008
Ban appelle les taliban à cesser d'exploiter et d'enrôler des enfants
21 novembre 2008 – Le Secrétaire général de l'ONU, Ban Ki-moon, s'inquiète des graves violations des
droits de l'enfant par les parties au conflit en Afghanistan, dans un rapport rendu public vendredi ["Rapport
du Secrétaire général sur les enfants et les conflits armés en Afghanistan", S/2008/695 du 10 novembre
2008], et appelle les taliban et d'autres groupes armés antigouvernementaux à cesser d'exploiter et d'enrôler
des enfants.
Le rapport remis au Conseil de sécurité et qui porte sur la période allant du 1er juillet 2007 au 15 août 2008
signale que des enfants ont été enrôlés et exploités par des groupes armés étatiques et non étatiques et que
des groupes armés non étatiques tels que les taliban continuent d'entraîner des enfants dont ils se servent
notamment pour des attentats-suicides.
Il lève aussi le voile sur la détention, par les autorités afghanes et par les forces militaires internationales,
d'enfants accusés d'association avec des groupes armés, et ce, en violation du droit afghan et des pratiques
optimales acceptées au plan international. Le rapport décrit également la situation préoccupante que créent
les attaques menées par des groupes armés non étatiques contre des écoles et des villages et dont les enfants
sont de plus en plus souvent victimes, et atteste que de plus en plus d'enfants sont tués par mégarde lors
d'opérations menées par les forces internationales et afghanes.
Dans ses recommandations, le Secrétaire général « engage tous les éléments antigouvernementaux parties au
conflit à cesser immédiatement de se servir d'enfants, de les exploiter et de les enrôler. » « Je recommande
également que les Forces nationales de sécurité afghanes mettent au point des procédures permettant de
vérifier l'âge des candidats au recrutement, et de prendre les mesures appropriées pour améliorer la
protection des enfants », ajoute-t-il.
M. Ban encourage également le gouvernement afghan à redoubler d'efforts pour traduire en justice tous les
auteurs des crimes commis contre des enfants et à ratifier la Convention no 182 de l'Organisation
internationale du travail (OIT). « Je lance un appel aux autorités afghanes pour qu'elles adoptent des textes
de lois en vue de criminaliser le recrutement d'enfants dans le cadre de conflits armés et pour qu'elles
envisagent d'adopter les lois requises pour donner effet au Statut de Rome de la Cour pénale internationale »,
écrit-il.
Le Secrétaire général engage aussi instamment les taliban et les autres éléments antigouvernementaux « à
mettre immédiatement un terme à leurs attaques contre la population civile, en particulier contre les enfants,
ainsi que contre des objectifs civils. » Il exhorte « les forces militaires internationales et les Forces nationales
de sécurité afghanes à améliorer leurs instructions permanentes et leurs règles d'engagement et de
comportement pour y inclure en particulier des dispositions expresses de protection des enfants. »
Ban Ki-moon invite le gouvernement afghan à mettre en œuvre plus intégralement des lois et programmes
visant à prévenir et à sanctionner la violence sexuelle ainsi qu'à aider les victimes, à surveiller les actes de
violence sexuelle graves perpétrés à l'encontre de garçons comme de filles, et à se concerter avec son équipe
en Afghanistan pour trouver le moyen de mettre un terme à des pratiques attentatoires telles que le « bacha
baazi », avec l'appui des chefs religieux afghans et de la société civile.
http://www.un.org/apps/newsFr/storyF.asp?NewsID D=17841&Cr=Afghanistan&Cr1=enfants
42
Girls school torched in Swat
PAN Monitor - Dec 5, 2008 - 11:29
PESHAWAR (PAN): Unknown persons set ablaze a girls school in the restive Swat valley of Pakistan
whereas land link between Kabal and Mingora has been suspended after Ayub Bridge destruction.
According to sources, unidentified persons set on fire a girl's school in Khawaza Khel area.
Meanwhile, land link between tehsil Kabal and Mangora suspended after destruction of Ayub Bridge in last
nights suicide attack. Power supply to tehsil Kabal also remained suspended after the attack.
School teacher shot dead in Helmand
Zainullah Stanakzai - Dec 18, 2008 - 17:22
LASHKARGAH (PAN): Unknown motorcyclists killed a teacher in Greshk district of the restive southern
Helmand province on Wednesday late afternoon.
Haji Abdul Ahad Khan, district chief of Greshk, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday that teacher
Abdullah was teaching at Abu Al-Fatah High School in the district.
He said armed motorcyclists shot him and that he died on the spot.
The district chief blamed Taliban for the murder and said that Taliban wants Afghan children to remain
illiterate.
He added that investigations on the incident have begun.
The Taliban have yet not claimed responsibility for the attack.
A resident of Greshk Kala Khan told Pajhwok Afghan News that the teacher had no enmity with anyone.
He also believed that the teacher was killed by Taliban.
Dozens of schools are closed due to insecurity in Helmand province.
'UN report on Afghan children misleading'
Lalit K Jha - Dec 20, 2008 - 13:15
UNITED NATIONS (PAN): The Afghan Ambassador to the UN, Zahir Tanin, Friday virtually blasted a top
UN Envoy for submitting a report on the status of Afghan children, which do not represent the ground
realities and is factually incorrect.
Speaking at a meeting of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, Amb Tanin
said the information contained in the report of Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict in
Afghanistan is dubious for many reasons.
"The report before us today fails to advance our goals. It distorts the situation in Afghanistan, it relies on
information of questionable credibility, and it takes an unwarranted and accusatory tone towards the
Government of Afghanistan," he said.
The report was recently submitted by Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special UN Envoy on Children and
Armed Conflict, after her recent visit to Afghanistan.
"We were disturbed by the apparent shift in focus of the report from the Taliban to the Government of
Afghanistan," Tanin said addressing the meeting. His view point was endorsed by a number of members of
the working group.
"It was with great bewilderment that we found that this report has chosen instead to unconstructively target
the Government of Afghanistan. Are we penalizing the Government of Afghanistan for its commitment and
good will?" he asked.
"It is imperative that this discussion be refocused immediately if we want this working group to deliver
productive outcomes that will improve the lives of children in Afghanistan," Tanin said.
The Afghan Ambassador said the report demonstrates a questionable understanding of the political and
socioeconomic realities in Afghanistan and the region. It breaks with accepted UN analysis of the situation
and thereby misidentifies both the causes and the solutions to the grave abuses of children's rights which are
of substantial concern to us all.
Secondly the conclusions described in this report seem to be based on sparse, largely anecdotal accounts
from unknown, and thereby unverifiable, sources. And finally, the language and tone of the report suggest a
shift in focus from the Taliban to the Government of Afghanistan which is wholly unjustified, Tanin
charged.
43
Further, the report detracts from the seriousness of the threat. It is the Taliban and other terrorists groups that
remain the main violator of human rights, including children's rights, in Afghanistan, he said.
Questioning the credibility of the report, Tanin said it seems to be based on base many of its broad
conclusions on one or two anecdotes, or less. In relying on anecdotal evidence, it fails to provide any sort of
holistic or objective view of trends over the course of the year reported, and no comparison of the severity of
various problems. Instead, it showcases a variety of individual examples chosen seemingly at random, he
said.
Also the sources used in the report are not identified, and it is unclear how far the accuracy of these sources
was verified, Tanin observed. Further the report contains factual inaccuracies that have now been widely
repeated in the media.
Attentat dans l'est afghan: 16 morts dont 14 enfants (nouveau bilan)
28.12.08 | 16h09
Seize personnes, dont quatorze enfants, ont été tuées dimanche et 58 blessées dans un attentat suicide à la
voiture piégée dans l'est de l'Afghanistan, selon un nouveau bilan fourni par la Force militaire internationale
de l'Otan (Isaf).
"Ce matin, un kamikaze au volant d'une voiture s'est fait exploser devant le quartier général du district de
Mando Zayi, dans la province de Khost. L'explosion a tué 16 Afghans et blessé 58 autres. Parmi les
personnes tuées, on compte 14 enfants et un soldat", annonce l'Isaf dans un communiqué.
Un précédent bilan, fourni par les autorités locales, avait fait état de sept morts, dont quatre enfants, et une
trentaine de blessés, dont également de nombreux enfants.
L'attentat a eu lieu près d'un collège où ces enfants étaient venus voir les résultats de leurs examens.
BBC, 28 décembre 2008
Children killed in afghan attack
A suicide bomber has hit a government building in eastern Afghanistan, killing 16 people, 14 of them
children, local police said.
A doctor at a hospital in Khost said 58 people - many of them children - were hurt in the attack, close to a
school.
Earlier, two Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Panjwayi district, a taleban stronghold in
southern Kandahar province.
An Afghan interpreter and a policeman working with them were also killed.
"These soldiers died honourably, helping bring security to Afghanistan," said a spokesman for the
International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in a statement.
taleban rebels have stepped up attacks on Afghan and foreign troops this year.
The deaths took to 106 the number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since their mission began in
2002.
In Khost province, the attacker detonated an explosives-laden car he was driving when police opened fire to
prevent him from reaching the government building where officials were meeting.
Police said tribal elders and local leaders were holding talks with the district governor about security and
planning for next year's presidential elections.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7801777.stm
"Los Angeles Times" (Etats-Unis), 29 décembre 2008
taliban bomber kills 14 children in attack
One of the more horrifying aspects of the struggles in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere has been the slaughter
of school children and the conversion of their schools into instruments of warfare.
44
In the early days of the U.S.-led the invasion of Iraq, troops found schools where Saddam Hussein had
stockpiled weaponry in classrooms, including closets full of suicide vests.
In northwest Pakistan, as The Times' Laura King reports this morning, several children were among those
killed when a suicide-car bomber sought to disrupt voting. A school was being used as a polling place and
children had accompanied their parents.
And in Afghanistan, a suicide-bomber driving an SUV apparently targeted children walking near their school
in the eastern province of Khowst. Fourteen children were killed, along with an Afghan soldier, and 58
Afghans were injured, officials said.
A surveillance video shows that the bomber could have waited for the children to walk past but decided
instead to detonate his explosives, U.S. officials said. A taliban spokesman was quoted calling the bomber a
martyr.
"There was no martyr here," said U.S. Army Col. Jerry O'Hara. "A real martyr would have taken a bullet to
save those children."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyon nd/2008/12/one-of-the-more.html
Unknown gunmen blow up school building in Farah
Ahmad Qureshi - Dec 22, 2008 - 16:22
ZARANJ (PAN): Unidentified gunmen have blown up a school building, destroying three classrooms in the
southwestern Farah province, an official said on Monday.
The school building was blown up late Sunday night in Chin Village of Pusht-i-Rood district of the province,
said education director of the province.
Atiqullah informed Pajhwok Afghan News more than 2000 students were studying in the school.
Rohul Amen governor of the lawless province bordering Iran blaming the Taliban fighters for torching the
school building condemned the incident. Although officials blame militants for torching schools, however,
Taliban rejected all the claims.
Large numbers of school buildings have been torched during the outgoing year, but no survey in this regard
has been taken so far in some provinces of the country including northern Faryab province.
Blast leaves four minors dead, six more injured
Said Jamal Asifkhel - Dec 26, 2008 - 18:34
GARDIZ (PAN): At least four minors were killed and six more received injuries when an old mortar shell
the children were playing with went off in southeastern Paktia province, security officials said Friday.
Ghulam Dastagir security chief of the police headquarters in an interview confirmed the explosion in
Khetaba area of the province and casualties caused.
Muhammad Nadir Nadiri superintendent of the Paktia Public Hospital said they received four dead and six
wounded children, he worried, two of the wounded in critical condition were sent to Kabul for medical
treatment.
The tragic blast in the province occurred when mine clearance organizations serve in the country for years
and in Paktia since four years.
Shir Agha Ahmadzai in charge of a mine clearance organization in southeastern Zone in an interview with
PAN unexploded ordinance had been collected from Gardiz, he believed the shell could be recent because
the area was volatile. They could not make it to send their staffers to the area because of the security
problems.
45
2009
Daily Times (Pakistan), 17 janvier 2009
Jihadi groups recruiting youths for terrorist activities
KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) [read below] Investigation Committee (IC) believes
that banned religious organizations are sending children to Waziristan, FATA, and Afghanistan to brainwash
and train them for Jihad. According to a press release issued on Friday by MQM’s London based secretariat,
the IC claimed that various banned organizations were persuading minors and youngsters for Jihad and after
keeping them at various offices, they were sending them to Waziristan for training. A report by the IC stated
that young boys were being trained for bombings, suicide attacks and in the use of modern weaponry in
training institutions located in the tribal areas. The IC report claimed that most of the suicide bombers in the
last few months were found to be young boys. According to report the centers of these Jihadi organizations
were, until a few months ago, concentrated in Pakhtoon dominated areas but had now expanded to other
localities as well. The report alleged that most of the young boys were being sent to Jihadi training camps
without their parents’ consent.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\01\17\story_17-1-2009_pg7_24
Teenager abducted in Herat
Ahmad Qurishi - Jan 19, 2009 - 19:16
HERAT CITY (PAN): Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a teenage son of a money changer in western Herat
province.
Colonel Abdul Raof Ahmadi, spokesman for police in western zone told Pajhwok Afghan News 12-years old
Nazir Ahmad, was snatched on Sunday night by three armed men from seven district of Herat city.
Nazir Ahmad was the son of Jalil Ahmad a money changer in Herat city and the fate of the young captive
was yet to be ascertained, he added the cause behind the abduction was unclear however such kidnapping
cases are mainly perpetrated for monetary purposes. A police source in Herat said police had launched an
investigation to trace the abductors and ensure safe release of the youngster.
During a period of last one year 50 cases of abductions including foreigners and traders were reported from
Herat province. The abduction cases badly affected the economic market in the province.
Taliban should stop targeting and using children:UN
Lalit K Jha - Jan 20, 2009 - 19:27
Washington, January 20, 2009 (PAN): A top UN rights official said Monday that the Taliban and other
armed groups should stop targeting and using children.
In a statement, Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict,
strongly condemns the increasing number of attacks claimed by Taliban insurgents and other armed groups
that utilize and target children.
She has been particularly appalled by three recent incidents: in January five schools in North West Pakistan
were blown up after an edict in December ordering all private schools to close; on December 28, a suicide
car bomb killed school children in Mandozai District of southeastern Khost province; on December 14, a 13year-old boy was used as a suicide bomber against British troops operating in Afghanistan's southern
Helmand province, killing himself and three soldiers, the UN statement said.
Referring to the Secretary-General's recent report on Children and Armed Conflict in Afghanistan issued in
November 2008, she said the report confirms that the Taliban continue to train and use children as suicide
bombers as well as indiscriminately target children in the conflict areas of Afghanistan.
46
Expressing grave concern about the increase in the number of child victims of attacks against schools by
Taliban insurgents who deny children the right to education, she said the throwing of acid to prevent girl
children and female teachers from going to school is deplorable.
The Special Representative strongly urged the Taliban and other armed groups to immediately stop using
children and cease attacks against civilians, especially children. "Children must be protected and not
targeted," Coomaraswamy concluded.
Blast kills three boys in Panjshir
Farid Tanha - Feb 7, 2009 - 20:05
PARAKH (PAN): Three boys were killed and as many wounded as an unexploded missile shell; they were
playing with, suddenly detonated in the central Panjshir province, an official informed on Saturday.
Gulabuddin, administrative head of Shotul district informed Pajhwok Afghan News the incident happened in
Mara area of the district late Friday. Two small girls were among the injured, the district chief added.
He explained all the injured were soon after rushed to Panjshir Emergency Hospital for treatment. Health
conditions of the two girls and a boy injured in the blast were stable, said Muhammad Akbar Jan, a doctor at
the Hospital.
The boys brought the shell in front of the house after they found it in a hillside, Pir Muhammad, the father of
a victim said. All the unexploded shells and other ammunitions were remains of the last Soviet war in the
area, he continued.
This was the first incident of its kind in the district, said the district chief Gulabuddin.
Child dies as militants attack forces in Uruzgan
Pajhwok Report - Feb 11, 2009 - 17:18
KABUL (PAN): A child was killed as militants attacked a convoy of the Afghan National Police and
Coalition Forces in Shaheed Hasas district of Uruzgan province on Tuesday, a statement issued here said on
Wednesday.
"The convoy on a reconnaissance patrol was approaching a village when came under attack by militants from
multiple locations using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and heavy weapons fire," the coalition said
in a statement.
The patrol continued to receive effective fire from the militants after successfully maneuvering away from
the village and responded with small-arms fire, it added.
"A child with a fatal wound was brought to a nearby Coalition Forces forward operating base as the
engagement was occurring and died before a medical evacuation could be made," the statement said.
However, it added that the cause of the injury was unknown and currently under investigation.
We are currently conducting an investigation to determine what happened, the statement said, quoting Col.
Greg Julian, US Forces-Afghanistan spokesperson, as saying.
Unlike the insurgents, ANP and Coalition forces make every effort to prevent civilian casualties by
attempting to move the fight away from villages and civilian centers," the statement claimed.
No additional ANP, Coalition Forces or civilian casualties have been reported during the exchange of fire.
Kunduz police rescue four youths, arrest kidnappers
Abdul Matin Sarfaraz - Feb 16, 2009 - 11:03
KUNDUZ CITY (PAN): Police in northern Kunduz province captured two kidnappers and recovered four
youths from their clutches during a raid on Monday.
Provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Abdul Razaq Ayubi told a press conference that police also arrested three
armed robbers in a separate raid.
Ayubi said the two kidnappers were captured in Kotal-i-Airang area of Char Dara district.
He added that one kidnapper was identified as Syed Ibrahim, alias Mastan, who had kidnapped four persons
from Kunduz, Badakhshan and Samangan provinces and forcibly joined them in his group.
The police official said that Mastan threatened the kidnapped persons to join his group otherwise they would
be killed.
The four captives will be sent back to their homes as soon as possible, he said and added one pistol, one
Kalashnikov and one microscope were recovered from the kidnappers.
47
Ayubi alleged that Mustan had links with a Taliban commander Qari Ajib Gul who was killed in the same
district about two weeks ago.
"Mastan has killed four civilians and sexually abused a woman and a girl this year," he added.
Mastan along with his fellow were paraded before journalists.
Answering a question, Mastan confessed to killing his four foes, but rebuffed the claim of sexually abusing
the woman and girl.
The police chief also informed about the arrest of three armed robbers in Sae Darak area on the outskirts of
the provincial capital.
He added two Kalashnikovs were recovered from the robbers who wanted to break into a house.
He said the intelligence operatives have also recovered seven Kalashnikovs, two rockets with 26 shells, two
pistols and large number of bullets of Kalashnikovs in different parts of the province; but no one was
arrested in this connection.
Blast kills two children in Kandahar
Pajhwok Report - Feb 24, 2009 - 17:31
KABUL (PAN): Two children were killed and a similar number were wounded when unexploded ordnance
they were handling detonated in a village near southern city of Kandahar, residents said Monday.
A statement issued by ISAF press office in Kabul said on Tuesday that it was alleged that the unexploded
ordnance was left behind by ISAF soldiers who were conducting a practice range exercise in the area
approximately 15 km west of Kandahar City, the day prior.
However, it said the nature of the munition involved has yet to be determined.
The incident is currently under investigation, the statement said.
Kabul police recover kidnapped teenager
Khaja Baser Ahmad - Mar 3, 2009 - 18:08
KABUL (PAN): Police in Kabul recovered a teenage boy from his kidnappers and arrested 11 people on
suspicion of abducting the boy, a senior police official said Tuesday.
Kabul police Chief Lt. Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahman told Pajhwok Afghan News that some unidentified
gunmen kidnapped Shoaib, a student of class sixth from outside his home.
"Our operatives safely freed the boy from his kidnappers within 20 hours of his abduction in cooperation
with local people in Paghman district," he said. He said the boy was handed over to his family.
Police also arrested 11 suspects on the charges of abducting Shoaib during a raid at approximately 11:00am
Monday in the same area.
He said the boy was kidnapped for ransom, adding that the arrested people were under interrogations.
Pakistan bans admission to Afghans in schools, colleges
Janullah Hashimzada - Mar 8, 2009 - 16:19
PESHAWAR (PAN): Government of Pakistan has banned allowing admissions to Afghan students in the
country's public and private schools and colleges, as well their entry into institutes.
North West Frontier Province's education minister Sardar Hussain Babak told Pajhwok Afghan News that
the federal government had taken this decision and they had been informed about it.
When asked that why such a decision was taken, Babak said the question may be asked from the federal
government.
In Peshawar, an official in Afghan consulate, responsible for Afghan refugees' affairs, Jalili also confirmed
the Pakistani government's decision and said; "From today, no Afghan is allowed admission into local
schools and colleges".
"Though, we are not officially informed about the decision, but we come to know through other sources,"
Jalili said.
However, he said the decision was only confined to schools and colleges while higher educational institutes
were exonerated from it.
The official expressed his displeasure over the decision, and said it would lead to deprive thousands of
Afghan children from acquiring education.
48
A spokeswoman for the UNHCR in NWFP Rabia Ali told this agency that the UN agency will take up the
issue with the Pakistani government.
The decision comes at a time when admissions into private and public schools and colleges are opened.
An Afghan student Zahidullah told this agency he was not allowed admission into a college.
Zahidullah, who was visibly upset with the situation said; "There are clashes in Afghanistan, where we can
not acquire education and this decision will shatter our dreams for getting our education completed," he said.
He demanded of the Afghan government to raise the issue with Pakistani government so that their frustration
could be removed.
80% kids in Ghor condemned to child labor: AIHRC
Muhammad Hassan Hakimi - Mar 12, 2009 - 20:03
CHEGHCHERAN (PAN): Expressing its deep concern, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights
Commission (AIHRC) has said that 80 percent of children in western Ghor province have been forced into
labor due to poverty.
Marzai Rahimi, head of child development section of the AIHRC in Ghor told Pajhwok Afghan News that a
survey conducted in the province revealed that 80 percent of the children were involved into labor in the
areas of agriculture and husbandry.
Rahimi cited economic problems and lack of awareness among the people major reasons behind the scourge.
About the bad impacts of labor work on the children, she said it presses the mentality of the children and
physical pressure on a child marginalizes him from society.
"The children who are forced into labor are aged between 7 years to 16 years," she said.
Rahimi said that sixty percent of girls were forced into marriages before reaching the age of adultness.
"When these girls go to the houses of their husbands, they forced them into labor," she claimed.
She said that the AIHRC had opened its branch in Ghor province a year back and exact figures of child
labors in the province were not yet in hand.
The human rights official described the child labor a stigma in the society and stressed the need for
improving the situation and provision of education opportunities to the children.
Muhammad Sarwar, 12, a resident of Quts village is one of the children forced into child labor.
Sarwar told this agency that he had lost his father and had four young brothers and one sister.
Due to economic problems, he said he was unable to get admission into a school and working at farms with
his nine-year-old brother and mother.
"It is my desire to go to school, but the poverty is not allowing me to do so. Therefore, I use to work with my
family at fields" Sarwar said.
Head of provincial education department, Muhammad Naeem Frogh said that the dropout of students from
high schools was 25 percent.
He said the boys after abandoning their studies go to work as laborers.
Maulavi Ramazan Qasimi, head of social and labor affairs department in Ghor province said that 80 percent
population of the Ghor province was attached with farming and husbandry.
He also termed economic problems the major cause of child labor and said the issue could not be resolved
until the economic situation of the people was not improved.
"Our department does not have enough budget to tackle the problem and there are no job opportunities for
children," Qasimi said.
Suspected militants blow up two schools in Khost
Saboor mangal - Mar 19, 2009 - 14:43
KHOST CITY (PAN): Suspected militants last night blew up two schools with powerful explosives in Nadir
Shahkot district of southeastern Khost province, education officials said Thursday.
Provincial education director Mosa Majroh told Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday that some unidentified
miscreants last night entered the schools and detonated powerful explosives inside the schools' buildings,
destroying the buildings badly.
More than 600 students of both the gender have been studying in these schools, Majroh said.
He added the schools were built at a cost of $160000 during the last fiscal year.
Nearly a week back, a school in the same province was destroyed by unknown people.
49
Meanwhile, US-led coalition forces in a statement said Wednesday they captured nearly 16 Taliban suspects
in Tannai district of the province.
Separately, in Alisher district, border police came under attack by unidentified gunmen, however police
suffered no casualty in the attack, a border police commander Limar Gul Mangal said.
Taliban have issued no statement thus far about the attacks.
SC condemns attack on civilians, staffing child soldiers
Pajhwok Correspondent - Mar 24, 2009 - 11:56
WASHINGTON (PAN): The UN Security Council Monday condemned the international forces and the
Taliban for attack on civilians in Afghanistan and slammed the terrorists groups for recruiting child soldiers.
A resolution in this regard was passed unanimously by the 15-membered Security Council at its meeting
Monday. The resolution also extended the misison of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
by another year.
The resolution strongly condemned in the strongest terms all attacks, including Improvised Explosive Device
attacks, suicide attacks and abductions, targeting civilians and Afghan and international forces and their
deleterious effect on the stabilization, reconstruction and development efforts in Afghanistan. It also
condemned the use by the Taliban and other extremist groups of civilians as human shields.
Expressing strong concern about the recruitment and use of children by Taliban forces in Afghanistan as well
as the killing and maiming of children as a result of the conflict, the Security Council reiterated its strong
condemnation of the recruitment and use of child soldiers in violation of applicable international law and all
other violations and abuses committed against children in situations of armed conflict, in particular attacks
against schools.
It called for those responsible to be brought to justice, stressed the importance of implementing Security
Council resolution 1612 (2005), in this context, and requests the Secretary-General to strengthen the child
protection component of UNAMA, in particular through the appointment of child protection advisers.
Underscoring the importance of the presidential and provincial council elections to Afghanistans democratic
development, the Council called for all efforts to ensure the credibility, safety and security of the ballot.
It recognized UNAMAs key role in supporting the electoral process, and called on the Afghan Government
and international organizations to fully implement the Afghanistan Compact and meet its benchmarks and
timelines for progress in security, governance, the rule of law and human rights, socio-economic issues and
counter-narcotics.
However, following the adoption of the resolution, the representative of Costa Rica expressed concern that
the text of the resolution had been weakened.
Contrary to former resolutions on Afghanistan, language expressing concern over the increase in civilian
casualties had not been incorporated. While realizing that insurgents bore the prime responsibility for most
civilian casualties, Costa Rica called on all parties to avoid inflicting them.
The resolution expressed its concern about the security situation in Afghanistan, in particular the increased
violent and terrorist activities by the Taliban, Al-Qaida, illegally armed groups, criminals and those involved
in the narcotics trade, and the increasingly strong links between terrorism activities and illicit drugs. All this
results in threats to the local population, including children, national security forces and international
military and civilian personnel, it said.
School destroyed as Taliban attack district in Laghman
Najibur Rahman Inqalabi - Mar 26, 2009 - 20:11
MEHTERLAM (PAN): Suspected Taliban militants fired several rockets into Qarghae district of eastern
Laghman province, destroying a school building and in ensuing gun-battle a police man was injured, officials
said Thursday.
Qarghae district chief, Haji Saleh Mohammad, told Pajhwok Afghan News the Taliban last night fired at
least eight rockets from Dehmazang heights into the district.
"A rocket hit a girl school after that the school's building caught fire," Mohammad said.
He said the police reached the spot soon after the incident and extinguished the fire. "Hundreds of books and
religious scripts were saved from burning," he claimed.
After rockets attack, the militants attacked at police with small arms fire, injuring a police man, the district
chief said.
50
He claimed the attack was repulsed and the Taliban also suffered casualties, but would no say how many
militants were killed.
An eyewitness said that fighting between the police and militants lasted for 20 minutes and Taliban have
now fled the area.
Taliban have so far issued no statement about the incident.
A month ago, Qarghae district police colonel Abdul Aziz along with another policeman were killed in a
Taliban ambush.
Série d'attaques en Afghanistan, au moins 27 morts
Reuters 04.05.09 | 13h50
Vingt-sept personnes au moins (bien 27), dont une majorité de civils, ont été tuées lundi dans une
série d'attaques menées en Afghanistan, a-t-on appris auprès des autorités. Dans la province
méridionale de Zabul, l'explosion d'une bombe a tué douze civils afghans. Quatre femmes et deux
enfants figurent au nombre des victimes. L'engin, dissimulé en bordure d'une route a explosé au
passage de leur tracteur. Six employés afghans d'une société de sécurité privée et deux civils ont
été tués peu de temps après dans une embuscade tendue par des insurgés taliban dans un autre
district de cette province. Sept personnes ont par ailleurs péri dans un attentat suicide contre un
maire de la province de Laghman (est). Le kamikaze était un adolescent de 14 ans. Face au
regain d'activités de l'insurrection, les Etats-Unis envisagent de doubler leur présence militaire en
Afghanistan cette année. Le contingent américain compte actuellement 32.000 soldats, auxquels
s'ajoutent 30.000 soldats de pays alliés engagés sous la bannière de la Force internationale
d'assistance à la sécurité (Fias) sous commandement de l'Otan.
Nouvelle attaque au gaz dans une école pour filles
Reuters 11.05.09 | 13h10
Quarante-six adolescentes afghanes ont été hospitalisées à la suite d'une attaque au gaz dans
une école pour filles de Charikar, dans le nord du pays, la seconde de ce genre en un mois, a
déclaré un médecin lundi. Le directeur du collège a fait évacuer précipitamment l'établissement
après que les collégiennes eurent senti une odeur inhabituelle et ressenti des nausées et des
vertiges, a expliqué à Reuters une victime de 17 ans allongée sur un lit d'hôpital. Parmi les 46
jeunes filles hospitalisées, certaines étaient sous oxygène, mais le pronostic vital n'était engagé
pour aucune d'entre elles. La nature du gaz utilisé n'était pas connue. Le docteur Anwar Karimi a
déclaré que les symptômes étaient identiques à ceux des jeunes filles hospitalisées après une
attaque au gaz survenue fin avril dans une autre école pour filles de Charikar, une ville réputée
calme. Des échantillons de sang avaient alors été envoyés pour analyse sur la base militaire
américaine de Bagram mais les résultats ne sont pas encore connus. Les attaques visant des
écoles pour filles se sont multipliées depuis l'année dernière, particulièrement dans le sud et l'est
du pays.
Most of 140 Afghan dead in US airstrikes under 18
Published: May 14, 2009
HERAT (AFP) - An Afghan government investigation has found that 95 out of 140 civilians killed in
US airstrikes a week ago were under 18 years old, an official said Wednesday.
The government has paid compensation to the families of the 140 people said to have been killed
in the western Afghan province of Farah as well as 25 wounded, provincial government
spokesman Farid Ahmad Ayobi told AFP.
51
The investigation team, appointed by President Hamid Karzai, announced its toll of 140 to
provincial authorities on Monday but did not say how many were adults and children. Other officials
had claimed more than 90 were under 18.
“The presidential delegation announced that 140 civilians were killed, 25 civilians were wounded
and 15 houses were destroyed,” Ayobi told AFP.
“There were 95 children below the age of 18 who were killed and 65 of the total killed were
female,” he said.
Members of the team could not be reached immediately for confirmation.
The toll makes it the deadliest incident for civilians in air strikes since the 2001 US-led invasion
toppled the Taliban regime paving the way for the deployment of thousands of foreign troops to
fight insurgents.
But after an investigation with Afghan security forces, the US military has accepted only that “a
number” of civilians were killed. It was unclear how.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/14-May2009/Most-of-140-Afghan-dead-in-US-airstrikes-under-18
Taliban militants burn down school in S Afghanistan
Anti-government militants in the wee hours of Thursday set fire on a school in outskirts of former
Taliban strong hold Kandahar province of southern Afghanistan, an official said.
"Armed militants set fire on a school which was used by some 600 boys and girls at around 2:00
a.m. (2130 GMT) in outside of Kandahar city," director of provincial education department
Najebullah Ahmadi told Xinhua.
Ahmadi added that local people rushed to the school and stopped the fire hours later .
Dozens of schools have been attacked and destroyed by insurgents over the past couple of years
in the war- plagued country where Taliban militants during their six- year regime had banned girls
schools and confined women to their houses.
Source: Xinhua
15:05, May 28, 2009
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6667170.html
Recruiter of child suicide bombers nabbed in Afghanistan
Afghanistan News.Net Sunday 5th July, 2009 (IANS)
A terrorist who allegedly recruited Afghan children to serve as suicide bombers has been taken into
custody, US officials said Sunday.
The arrest was made south of the Afghan capital of Kabul. A second rebel sympathiser was taken
into custody Saturday in Logar province.
The two belonged to the Hakkani Network, considered to be 'one of the deadliest Taliban
organisations' and had been active in the troubled Afghan area along the Pakistani border.
US-led coalition troops and Afghan soldiers participated in the mission.
On Saturday, two soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were
killed by militants in southern Afghanistan, military officials reported. The soldiers' nationalities
were not known.
US and Afghan troops began a major anti-Taliban offensive in Afghanistan's southern province of
Helmand Thursday, with support from British troops.
http://www.afghanistannews.net/story/515448
52
Four of 13 abducted children rescued in east
Abdul Moeed Hashimi - Nov 1, 2009 - 18:14
JALALABAD (PAN): Four of the 13 abducted children have been rescued from their adductors in eastern Nangarhar
province, an official said Sunday.
Unknown gunmen kidnapped 13 children from Haska Mina district a week back and police rescued four of them during
a search operation in Morgai forests.
A spokesman for the provincial governor Ahmad Zia Abdul Zai told Pajhwok Afghan News efforts were underway to
ensure the release of the remaining kids.
Zai said the location of the other abducted children could be found, but the families claimed their children had been
kidnapped by the people of a border village.
The gubernatorial spokesman said the residents of Haska Mina had set Sunday evening a deadline to the kidnappers for
release of the children.
Haska Mina district chief Haji Hamisha Gul said the four released children were handed over to their parents.
Gul said due to heavy snow on the forest region, the rescuers were facing problems and the border of Durand Line was
covered with snow.
Haji Shah Pur, deputy head of development council, said a tribe called Hassankhel in Aghaz and Kas area where they
suspect the children might be kept in captivity.
"The families have accused the said tribe of abducting their children with support from Taliban militants to the other
side of the border where Afridi tribe resides," he said.
Pur said they had given Sunday evening a deadline to the tribe. "In case, the tribesmen did not comply with the
deadline, then the district residents will take a decision on the issue," he added.
Abducted boys rescued, gang busted in Kandahar
Bashir Ahmad Nadem - Nov 8, 2009 - 18:14
KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): Police busted a kidnapping gang in this southern city ofKandahar and rescued two children
from the kidnappers' captivity.
Police Chief Brigadier General Sardar Mohammad Zazi told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday the abductors were
arrested in the jurisdiction of 9th police station during a raid on a house where the kidnap victims were kept.
He said the five abductors had kidnapped two minor boys identified as Hamidullah and Ihsaanullah four days back and
kept them locked in the house situated in the family locality.
He said the kidnappers had sought $100, 000 for the release of the children.
Zazi said the parents did not file a case in the police station but the police successfully recovered the children.
The kids who were shackled showed to media men. One of the kids said:" The kidnappers kept us in a hovel and gave
us no food."
The parents of the rescued kids avoided to comment.
10 children escape captors
Abdul Moeed Hashimi - Nov 16, 2009 - 17:05
JALALABAD (PAN): Ten of more than a dozen children, abducted from the Haska Mina district of eastern Nangarhar
province, escaped their captors and returned home on Monday.
Three of the 13 children, kidnapped by unidentified armed men three weeks back, had returned home a fortnight ago.
Haji Hamisha Gul, Haska Mina district chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News the 10 children were reunited with their
families today.
He added the children -- aged between eight and 13 -- were kept in Dogar area of theTirah Valley in Pakistan's lawless
tribal region of Khyber Agency, bordering the eastern province.
The district chief revealed the kidnap victims had the opportunity to flee as the Pakistan Air Force bombarded the
Dogar area in Khyber Agency. Hamisha Gul explained the Pakistan Taliban had denied involvement in the abduction
episode.
Sawab Khan, whose son and nephew were among the abductees, said: "The children were abducted by unidentified
gunmen." He alleged the victims were beaten and subjected to starvation.
Sawab Khan insisted the armed men handed the children to the Pakistan Taliban, who asked them whether their family
members worked for Afghan security forces.
Nangarhar governor spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said the children managed to escape and there had been no deal
for there release.
mnm/mud
53
Afghanistan: un enfant meurt dans l'explosion de la bombe qu'il posait
AFP 21.11.09 | 11h28
Un enfant de 13 ans est mort vendredi dans l'explosion de la bombe qu'il était en train de
dissimuler, dans le sud de l'Afghanistan, a annoncé samedi le ministère de l'Intérieur, qui a
dénoncé un "acte barbare des terroristes". "Un enfant de 13 ans avait reçu l'ordre des
terroristes de dissimuler une bombe sous un pont dans le district de Zahri de la province de
Kandahar et la bombe a explosé prématurément vendredi, tuant l'enfant", a indiqué le
ministère dans un communiqué. "Les terroristes mentent aux enfants et les utilisent pour
atteindre leurs néfastes objectifs, en violation des valeurs islamiques et des droits de l'homme.
Le ministère de l'Intérieur condamne fortement cet acte barbare des terroristes", a-t-il ajouté.
La province de Kandahar est le berceau des talibans et l'un de leurs bastions. L'Afghanistan est
en proie à l'insurrection meurtrière des talibans, en dépit de la présence de plus de 100.000
soldats étrangers, dont environ 68.000 Américains. L'année 2009 se révèle déjà la plus
meurtrière depuis la chute du régime taliban en 2001, aussi bien en ce qui concerne les
victimes civiles que pour les forces de sécurité afghanes et internationales.
West air raid kills Afghan school children
29/12/ 09
Western attack killed ten civilians, mostly school children in eastern Afghanistan, villagers said.
Elders of the village have told us that 10 people have been killed in this airstrike, eight of them school
students," Kunar governor Sayed Fazlullah Wahedi said.
Karzai condemned the killings, which took place in Kunar province on the border with Pakistan on
Saturday, according to President Hamid Karzai's office on Monday.
The West-installed president promised a "probe" into the killing.
"President Karzai strongly condemns the operation which caused civilian deaths and has appointed a
delegation to investigate the incident," it said.
But the death toll is feared to rise because investigations were ongoing.
Politicians representing Kunar walked out of an important parliamentary session debating appointments
to Karzai's new cabinet to protest the civilian casualties, television showed.
NATO-led forces in Afghanistan said they would "look into the report" but declined immediate comment.
NATO and US-West coalition forces, which number more than 110,000, occupies the country for years.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=51885
54

Bassirat 3 mai 2007 - Collectif de soutien aux exilés du 10e

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