News / Afghanistan

Death toll from Kabul University attack reaches 35

Tuesday, 03 November 2020 2:02 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 03 November 2020 2:02 PM ]

A photographer takes pictures inside a burned office of the National Legal Training center, in Kabul, Afghanistan, a day after gunmen stormed the site, on November 3, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

The death toll from an assault on Kabul University in the Afghan capital has risen to 35 people, most of them students.

Two government sources told Reuters on Tuesday that around 50 people had also been wounded in the Monday attack, which ended after hours of fighting between the assailants and security forces.

Earlier on Monday, the Taliban militant group denied involvement in the attack. A Taliban spokesman who goes by the name Zabihullah Mujahid blamed the assault on the Daesh terrorist group.

But Afghanistan’s first Vice President Amrullah Saleh blamed the Taliban and their alleged supporters in Pakistan, while acknowledging an intelligence failure.

“The Talibs, [and] their like-minded satanic allies… next door, won’t be ever able to wash their conscience of this stinking & non justifiable attack on Kbul uni,” Saleh said on Twitter.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the “despicable” assault on a seat of learning.

Hours after the attack, the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility, saying its members had “managed to attack a gathering set up by the Afghan government at the Kabul University for the graduation of judges and investigators after completing a course at the university.”

A photographer takes pictures inside a burned office of the National Legal Training center, in Kabul, Afghanistan, a day after gunmen stormed the site, on November 3, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has vowed to “take revenge for this senseless attack and for any drop of innocent students’ blood spilled.”

The Afghan government also declared Tuesday as a day of national mourning.

Several education centers in Afghanistan have been attacked over the years by extremist groups.

In 2018, a bomber killed dozens of people, many of them teenagers, in front of Kabul University in an attack also claimed by Daesh.

Also last week, two dozen people, mostly students, lost their lives as an educational center in western Kabul was targeted in an attack claimed by Daesh.

Policemen stand guard at an entrance of the Kabul University a day after gunmen stormed the site, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on November 3, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Violence continues in Afghanistan even as the Kabul government and Taliban have been meeting in Qatar to reach a peace deal and end nearly two decades of war in the country.

On the gates of the Kabul University, signs reading “Boycott Doha talks!” were hung on Tuesday morning.

Official data shows that Taliban bombings and other assaults have increased 70 percent since the group reached a “peace” deal with Washington in February.

The United States invaded Afghanistan and toppled a Taliban regime in 2001.

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