The United Nations expert on Afghanistan condemned on Tuesday a “heinous attack” near a school in the capital Kabul, which a resident told AFP wounded scores of children.
Richard Bennett said numerous children were hurt in the “deplorable” attack in the western Dasht-e-Barchi area, which is home to the historically persecuted Shiite Hazara community.
“A full and independent investigation with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice is essential,” Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, wrote on X.
The blast happened on Monday at a private primary school for girls and boys, just as the children were being dismissed, a 38-year-old resident who lives nearby told AFP.
“From what I saw, the children who were inside the school courtyard had been wounded, while those who had already left the school were safe,” she told AFP, on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The resident said wounded children were taken away in ambulances and cars.
“There were so many wounded people that I couldn’t count them,” she said.
Kabul police told AFP there was a “hand grenade explosion” at a school, in which “several children sustained minor injuries”.
“Relevant teams have arrived at the scene, and an investigation into the incident is underway,” Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said late Monday.
A second resident, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the area was surrounded by security forces on Tuesday.
There have been sporadic attacks in Kabul over the past five years of Taliban government rule, including an explosion at a central Chinese restaurant in January which killed at least seven people.
There have been multiple deadly blasts in the Dasht-e-Barchi area, including a car bomb outside a girls’ school in 2021 that killed at least 90 people and wounded hundreds more.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for attacks in Dasht-e-Barchi, targeting Shiites who they consider heretics.
