Survivors of a ruthless terrorist attack in Kabul that killed dozens of children have spoken of their trauma at seeing young students maimed by at least three explosions.
They spoke of their determination that surviving children should continue their education despite the threat of terrorism, whether from ISIS or the Taliban.
The Taliban denied the attack, while ISIS, who have a small presence in Afghanistan and have conducted similar attacks, did not issue a statement.
Seeking a better life
Abdullah, 42, a construction worker in Kabul, had been firmly against sending his daughter to go to school.
It was not that didn’t believe in education for girls.
On the contrary, he hoped his 18-year-old daughter Shukria would graduate with a top level degree and make something of herself, someday.
“But after so many attacks on education institutes, we pulled her out of school last year. But this year, despite our refusal, she insisted on rejoining her school. She was determined to continue her education,” he says.
Abdullah, who like many Afghans goes only by one name, has been looking for Shukria since 4.15pm yesterday.
Shukria was among hundreds of other students leaving the Sayedul Shuhada School in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul when a car filled with explosives detonated at the gates of the school.
Two other IEDs close by also went off shortly after, leaving nearly 53 killed, the majority of victims being school girls like Shukria. At least 100 were injured.
Whoever is behind this attack is an enemy of education and knowledge
This is the third such attack on an education institute in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood, which is predominantly populated by the Shiite Hazara ethnic minority of Afghanistan who are often persecuted by insurgent groups.
About 24 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a private learning centre in the neighbourhood in October. In August 2018, a similar attack inside the classroom of a learning centre killed 34 students.
Saturday’s attack has been the deadliest by far, and primarily targeted school girls who were leaving the premises at the end of the afternoon lessons.
Eyewitnesses, affected families and first responders who talked to The National claimed that the casualty toll could rise much higher, saying they have counted over 80 bodies so far.
“I have looked for her everywhere. I went to the majority of Kabul’s hospitals—private, public, small clinics, home clinics, but there is no sign of her,” he says, holding back tears. “Her mother is checking in other hospitals. She has been constantly crying,” he adds.
As the death toll continues to mount, Abdullah’s hope dwindles with every passing hour.
“I saw her name on the injured list of one of the hospitals but they couldn’t locate her. I feel she may have been incinerated in the blast,” he says, breaking down at the words. “We are in so much pain right now. Apart from her, I only seek patience right now,” he says.
Shukria, her father says, was his first-born, the eldest of seven siblings, and a trailblazer in the family.
“She was a very hardworking girl,” he says fondly. Despite trying, Abdullah says he can’t help referring to her in the past tense.
“Apart from school, she attended other courses, English and painting. She really liked to paint and wanted to be a professional artist one day,” he adds with pride.
Abdullah, who has been fasting for Ramadan, hasn’t eaten in two days. He did not break his fast yesterday and did not eat sehri, an early morning meal Muslims have before starting their fasts.
“But my Shukria Jan was also fasting,” he says, when offered water and comfort.
The building of Shukria’s school, although still standing, carries the scars of the attack; shattered windows and piles of broken glass are remnants of yet another tragedy inflicted on the community.
Ms Aqila Tawakuli, the principal of the targeted school, was in the building when she heard the first two explosions. “Along with two other teachers, I ran towards the main gate to shut it so the students didn't go out. I directed the students already outside to move in the opposite direction, and that is when the third blast happened,” she said, unable to hold back her tears.
What Ms Tawakuli saw after the explosion will forever remain etched onto her mind.
Horrific aftermath
“I saw students without limbs, bodies without a head, bodies there were burned. I saw pieces of my students scattered all around me,” she recalls, still visibly shaken from the shock and trauma.
“The two teachers with me who were helping the victims of the first two blasts were also injured in the third explosion,” she says.
While the neighbourhood has come under attacks several times in the past, the school hadn’t been threatened before, Ms Tawakuli said.
Security failures
Incidentally, officials from the Afghan intelligence department had visited the school on the morning of the attack to enquire if the school faced any security issues. “I told them we needed more security guards. We have nearly 7,500 students and only three guards.
I requested them to provide police patrolling in the area around the time children leave the school. They told me to make a written request, but before we could do anything, we were bombed,” she said.
“Whoever is behind this attack is an enemy of education and knowledge. They don’t want these kids developing and this is not the first or the second attack. They have repeatedly attacked our [Hazara Shiite] children,” she said, her voice rising.
Abdullah held similar sentiments and blamed the government for failing to protect his daughter. “They have a hand in this; the government doesn’t want us to be educated,” he said. “How can something like this happen? How could they not notice a car with explosives parked near a crowded school or people digging the ground and placing explosives?” he questioned.
But Ms Tawakuli remained determined to soldier on, saying they planned to restart the school after Eid. “I felt so proud to see an interview with one of our students who said they won’t stop their education. They will continue going to school, and we will be here for them,” she said.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The years Ramadan fell in May
EXPATS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Lulu%20Wang%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nicole%20Kidman%2C%20Sarayu%20Blue%2C%20Ji-young%20Yoo%2C%20Brian%20Tee%2C%20Jack%20Huston%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Asia Cup Qualifier
Venue: Kuala Lumpur
Result: Winners play at Asia Cup in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in September
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29: Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30: UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6: Final
Asia Cup
Venue: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Schedule: Sep 15-28
Teams: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, plus the winner of the Qualifier
LOVE%20AGAIN
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Jim%20Strouse%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStars%3A%20Priyanka%20Chopra%20Jonas%2C%20Sam%20Heughan%2C%20Celine%20Dion%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EDiet%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%0D%3Cbr%3E7am%20-%20Protein%20shake%20with%20oats%20and%20fruits%0D%3Cbr%3E10am%20-%205-6%20egg%20whites%0D%3Cbr%3E1pm%20-%20White%20rice%20or%20chapati%20(Indian%20bread)%20with%20chicken%0D%3Cbr%3E4pm%20-%20Dry%20fruits%20%0D%3Cbr%3E7.30pm%20-%20Pre%20workout%20meal%20%E2%80%93%20grilled%20fish%20or%20chicken%20with%20veggies%20and%20fruits%0D%3Cbr%3E8.30pm%20to%20midnight%20workout%0D%3Cbr%3E12.30am%20%E2%80%93%20Protein%20shake%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20intake%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204000-4500%20calories%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESaidu%E2%80%99s%20weight%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20110%20kg%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStats%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Biceps%2019%20inches.%20Forearms%2018%20inches%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
more from Janine di Giovanni
The biog
Favourite car: Ferrari
Likes the colour: Black
Best movie: Avatar
Academic qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in media production from the Higher Colleges of Technology and diploma in production from the New York Film Academy
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
UAE's final round of matches
- Sep 1, 2016 Beat Japan 2-1 (away)
- Sep 6, 2016 Lost to Australia 1-0 (home)
- Oct 6, 2016 Beat Thailand 3-1 (home)
- Oct 11, 2016 Lost to Saudi Arabia 3-0 (away)
- Nov 15, 2016 Beat Iraq 2-0 (home)
- Mar 23, 2017 Lost to Japan 2-0 (home)
- Mar 28, 2017 Lost to Australia 2-0 (away)
- June 13, 2017 Drew 1-1 with Thailand (away)
- Aug 29, 2017 v Saudi Arabia (home)
- Sep 5, 2017 v Iraq (away)
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PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
RACECARD
4.30pm Jebel Jais – Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 (Turf) 1,000m
5pm: Jabel Faya – Maiden (PA) Dh60,000 (T) 1,000m
5.30pm: Al Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m
6pm: The President’s Cup Prep – Conditions (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club – Prestige (PA) Dh125,000 (T) 1,600m
7pm: Al Ruwais – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 1,200m
7.30pm: Jebel Hafeet – Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
The%C2%A0specs%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Etwo%20permanent%20magnet%20synchronous%20motors%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Etwo-speed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E625hp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E850Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERange%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E456km%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh737%2C480%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UK%20record%20temperature
%3Cp%3E38.7C%20(101.7F)%20set%20in%20Cambridge%20in%202019%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs: 2018 Ducati SuperSport S
Price, base / as tested: Dh74,900 / Dh85,900
Engine: 937cc
Transmission: Six-speed gearbox
Power: 110hp @ 9,000rpm
Torque: 93Nm @ 6,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 5.9L / 100km
'Ghostbusters: From Beyond'
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace
Rating: 2/5
Australia tour of Pakistan
March 4-8: First Test, Rawalpindi
March 12-16: Second Test, Karachi
March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore
March 29: First ODI, Rawalpindi
March 31: Second ODI, Rawalpindi
April 2: Third ODI, Rawalpindi
April 5: T20I, Rawalpindi
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Directed by: Shaka King
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons
Four stars
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
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