Since returning to office the Taliban have pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on security threats
\nKABUL:
\nDozens of women from Afghanistan\u2019s minority Hazara community protested in the capital Saturday after a suicide bombing a day earlier killed 20 people — mostly young women from the ethnic group.
\nA bomber blew himself up on Friday at a Kabul study hall as hundreds of pupils were taking tests in preparation for university entrance exams in the city\u2019s Dasht-e-Barchi area.
\nThe western neighbourhood is a predominantly Shiite Muslim enclave and home to the minority Hazara community — a historically oppressed group that has been targeted in some of Afghanistan\u2019s most brutal attacks in recent years.
\nPolice said at least 20 people were killed but the United Nations has put the number at 24.
\nOn Saturday about 50 women chanted, \u201cStop Hazara genocide, it\u2019s not a crime to be a Shia\u201d, as they marched past a hospital in Dasht-e-Barchi where several victims of the attack were being treated.
\nDressed in black hijabs and headscarves, angry protesters carried banners that read: \u201cStop killing Hazaras\u201d, an AFP correspondent reported.
\nWitnesses have told AFP that the suicide attacker detonated in the women\u2019s section of the gender-segregated hall.
\n\u201cYesterday\u2019s attack was against the Hazaras and Hazara girls,\u201d protester Farzana Ahmadi, 19, told AFP.
\n\u201cWe demand a stop to this genocide. We staged the protest to demand our rights.\u201d
\nProtesters later gathered in front of the hospital and chanted slogans as dozens of heavily armed Taliban, some carrying rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, kept watch.
\nSince the hardline Taliban returned to power last August, women\u2019s protests have become risky, with numerous demonstrators detained and rallies broken up by Taliban forces firing shots in the air.
\nNo group has claimed responsibility for Friday\u2019s attack at the Kaaj Higher Educational Centre.
\nBut the Islamic State (IS) group regards Shiites as heretics and has previously claimed attacks in the area targeting girls, schools and mosques.
\nThe Taliban also regard the Hazara community as heathens, and rights groups often accused the Taliban of targeting them during their 20-year insurgency against the former US-backed government.
\nSince returning to office the Taliban have pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on security threats.
\nHowever, rights group Amnesty International said Friday\u2019s attack was \u201ca shamefaced reminder of the inaptitude and utter failure of the Taliban, as de-facto authorities, to protect the people of Afghanistan\u201d.
\nIn May last year, before the Taliban\u2019s return to power, at least 85 people — mainly girls — were killed and about 300 were wounded when three bombs exploded near their school in Dasht-e-Barchi.
\nNo group again claimed responsibility, but a year earlier IS claimed a suicide attack on an educational centre in the same area that killed 24.
\nIS has emerged as a key security challenge for the Taliban, but officials claim their forces have defeated the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since returning to office the Taliban have pledged to protect minorities and clamp down on security threats KABUL: Dozens of women from Afghanistan\u2019s minority Hazara community protested in the capital Saturday after a suicide bombing a day earlier killed 20 people — mostly young women from the ethnic group. A bomber blew himself up on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-286912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n