Flags at half-mast as ‘Kabul bleeds’ after deadly attack

KABUL: Afghanistan’s government on Tuesday declared a national mourning day to honor more than 20 civilians who died a day earlier in an attack on Kabul University (KU) that was claimed by affiliates of Daesh.

Flags flew at half-mast while prayers were held across the country for the victims, many of whom were young students. In the attack heavily armed gunmen dressed in Afghan security force uniforms stormed the university and opened fire on students and teachers. Afghan and US-backed troops then engaged in a gun battle for hours with the assailants who had taken some of the students hostage.

Reshad Ahmad, a relative of Abdul Raouf, one of the students who was killed in Monday’s attack, described how Raouf was “hopeful of a bright future to build Afghanistan” after more than four decades of conflict, he told Arab News on Tuesday

“He was studying to graduate from the university and help fellow Afghans, but (all of them) were killed so mercilessly. Why? Why were they targeted? The university was not a military target.”

Another victim, Mohammad Rohed, was known as a highly motivated speaker, according to his friend Farzad Jamal.

“He always urged people to smile despite the pain of life in Afghanistan. Kabul bleeds, so do our hearts with so much loss of life every day,” Jamal said.

Thousands of civilians, including KU students, joined a march on Tuesday to protest against yesterday’s attack.

In an address to the nation on Monday night, President Ashraf Ghani described the attack as “despicable” and “senseless” and vowed to take revenge “for any drop of innocent students’ blood spilled.”

Ghani and other government leaders accused the Taliban of involvement in the attack – a charge denied by the insurgent group, which also condemned the strike.

In a statement released on Monday, Daesh said it was behind the strike, the second one to be conducted by the group in less than two weeks.

The previous attack was on an educational center in a Shia-dominated part of Kabul, where nearly 30 students lost their lives.

Condemning the attack, US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said on Tuesday that both the Taliban and Kabul needed to remain engaged in the intra-Afghan peace talks which began on Sept. 12 in Doha, Qatar, as part of a US-brokered deal earlier this year.

“Unite for peace, find a path to a ceasefire and accelerate a political settlement. This barbaric attack is NOT an opportunity for the government and the Taliban to score points against each other,” he tweeted, warning against “a common enemy here.”

Meanwhile, posters denouncing the attack and demanding an end to the Doha talks were pasted on some walls of the KU compound on Tuesday.

In Tuesday’s protest march, several demanded the interior, defense and intelligence chiefs resign from their posts over their “repeated failure” to curb attacks by the Taliban and Daesh in recent weeks.

Some experts questioned the government’s move to call for a national day of mourning, saying that “every day is a day of mourning in Afghanistan” due to a spike in civilian deaths and losses among security forces.

“Afghans expect competency in government security forces. The gaps need to be closed there,” Torek Farhadi, a former government adviser, said. “It is the responsibility of the Afghan government to protect the Afghans, let people mourn, you fulfill your responsibility (to protect people), not to declare a mourning day.”

Meanwhile, Shafiq Hapal, an analyst, said that the attack “shows the further weakness of the government because it was not the first of its kind.”

“People seem frustrated and for valid reasons. Government leaders keep boasting about improving security and the livelihoods of people, meanwhile things are becoming much worse day by day.”