Afghan air attack on religious school kills dozens including children

Al Jazeera
April 3, 2018

Dozens of civilians, including children, have been killed in an Afghan air attack on a gathering at a religious school in the northern province of Kunduz, eyewitnesses and an official said.

A religious school in the Dasht-e-Archi district of the Kunduz province was targeted by air raids late on Monday, resulting in the death of at least 70 people, including top Taliban commanders, a district official told Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to media.

Ministry of Defense spokesman, Mohammad Radmanish, told Al Jazeera that the air raid was aimed at "top Taliban commanders".

"The air strike killed more than 30 Taliban fighters, including nine commanders," he said. "The Taliban training centre was bombed and no civilians were present."

The Taliban denied its fighters were present at the school during the time of the attack. 

'I am not a terrorist'

Witnesses told Al Jazeera that the gathering included "a lot of civilians" and the families of those killed in the attack "were devastated".

"There were children as young as 11 or 12 years old in the ceremony who were to be presented with awards and gifts for the completion of their religious courses," Mohammed Abdul Haq, who witnessed the attack, told Al Jazeera. 

"Mothers are wailing and crying outside the hospitals for the death of their children and everyone is crying with them," he added. 

Other witnesses told Al Jazeera that more than 100 people were killed in the attack. 

"I was working in my farm when I heard helicopters and jets bombing the madrassa (religious school) where the Taliban were gathered alongside new Qaris (the ones who memorise the 30 chapters of the Quran) to recognise them with awards," Haji Ghulam, a witness, told Al Jazeera. 

"The Taliban are active in the area, but the ceremony was attended mostly by children and young boys."

Haji said when he went closer to the area, there were many children who were killed and wounded.

"It was a disaster. Blood everywhere," he said, adding that the "many" people were killed.

Images circulating on social media purportedly showed a number of children'ss bodies, accompanied by the phrase: "I am not a terrorist". Al Jazeera could not independently verify the images.

The Taliban, in a statement sent to Al Jazeera, said the air raid killed around 150 religious scholars and civilians, mostly children, while maintaining that no fighters were present during the attack.

UN to probe attack

United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said on Twitter that a human rights team on the ground will investigate the incident.

"UNAMA actively looking in to disturbing reports of serious harm to civilians yesterday from air strike at #DashtiArchi, #Kunduz. Human Rights team on ground establishing facts. All parties reminded of obligations to protect civilians from impact of armed conflict," the tweet said.

Afghanistan's air force, backed by US-led NATO coalition advisers, has accelerated aerial raids in the country in recent months to push the Taliban to the negotiating table, however, civilians have reportedly been killed in several incidents.

Earlier this month, a unit of the Afghan security and intelligence forces carried out a deadly raid in two villages in the Chaparhar district of Nangarhar province, that resulted in the death of seven farmer including two teenagers.

Afghan officials maintained that the people killed in the attack were Taliban fighters.

On January 31, Afghan special forces backed by US air raids launched an offensive against Taliban fighters in the Maiwand district in Kandahar, according to a Human Rights Watch report, released in February. 

At least 20 civilians were killed in the operation, the report said.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 25: The government party led by Interim Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has rejected his resignation, urging him to continue leading it and the country, now shrouded in political uncertainty.

During an extraordinary meeting held on Monday night, the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu) unanimously rejected the 94-year-old Prime Minister's decision, reports Efe news.

Mahathir, the world's oldest head of government, presented his resignation on Monday, later accepted by King Abdullah Pahang, on condition that he continue as Interim Prime Minister until a new government is formed.

That decision caused a domino effect that broke the Patakan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) alliance, formed in 2018 by four political parties that prevailed in that year's general elections.

Bersatu and 11 Popular Justice Party deputies announced their departure from the coalition, although they reaffirmed their confidence in Mahathir as Malaysia's political leader.

"We remain intact and prepared to build a party to face the difficulties," Marzuki Yahya, Bersatu Secretary-General, said after the meeting.

Confusion reigns in the country, with some local media claiming Bersatu and the 11 deputies Justice Party deputies intended to form a new government with opposition parties, including the historic Barisan Nasional coalition, under Mahathir's leadership.

Lim Guan Eng, Finance Minister and coalition member, said in a statement that the chief executive himself had informed him he had no intention of forming a coalition with Barisan, which suffered a historic defeat in the last elections.

A future government will need at least 112 of 222 parliament votes.

Mahathir returned to politics in 2018 heading the Patakan Harapan coalition to defeat his predecessor Najib Razak, marred by the corruption suspicions offenses.

To that end, Mahathir joined Anwar Ibrahim, a former political ally who fell out of favour in 1999 and was imprisoned five years on charges of corruption and sodomy, whom he promised to be his successor in power.

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Agencies
February 18,2020

British lawmaker Debbie Abrahams' e-Business visa was revoked as she was involved in anti-India activities and the cancellation was conveyed to her on February 14, government sources said on Tuesday.

Asserting that the grant, rejection or revocation of a visa or electronic travel authorisation is the sovereign right of a country, the sources said Abrahams was issued an e-Business visa on October 7 last year which was valid till October 5, 2020 for attending business meetings.

"Her e-Business visa was revoked on February 14, 2020 on account of her indulging in activities which went against India's national interest. The rejection of the e-Business visa was intimated to her on February 14," a source said.

Abrahams, who chairs a British parliamentary group on Kashmir, was denied entry into India upon her arrival at the New Delhi airport on Monday.

Government officials had said on Monday also that she was informed in advance that her e-visa had been cancelled.

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News Network
June 13,2020

Jun 13: Requiring the wearing of masks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in areas at the epicenter of the global pandemic may have prevented tens of thousands of infections, a new study suggests.

Mask-wearing is even more important for preventing the virus' spread and the sometimes deadly COVID-19 illness it causes than social distancing and stay-at-home orders, researchers said, in the study published in PNAS: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

Infection trends shifted dramatically when mask-wearing rules were implemented on April 6 in northern Italy and April 17 in New York City - at the time among the hardest hit areas of the world by the health crisis - the study found.

"This protective measure alone significantly reduced the number of infections, that is, by over 78,000 in Italy from April 6 to May 9 and over 66,000 in New York City from April 17 to May 9," researchers calculated.

When mask-wearing went into effect in New York, the daily new infection rate fell by about 3% per day, researchers said. In the rest of the country, daily new infections continued to increase.

Direct contact precautions - social distancing, quarantine and isolation, and hand sanitizing - were all in place before mask-wearing rules went into effect in Italy and New York City. But they only help minimize virus transmission by direct contact, while face covering helps prevent airborne transmission, the researchers say.

"The unique function of face covering to block atomization and inhalation of virus-bearing aerosols accounts for the significantly reduced infections," they said. That would indicate "that airborne transmission of COVID-19 represents the dominant route for infection."

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday urged organizers of large gatherings that involve "shouting, chanting or singing to strongly encourage the use of cloth face coverings to lower the risk of spreading the coronavirus."

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