 PADKHWAI RAGHANI, Afghanistan - Armed men broke into a girls' school south of the Afghan capital and set it on fire, the latest attack on education for girls in the conservative country, officials said Thursday.
| Beturbanned rustics, fondling their Russian-designed manhood, invaded a girl's school far enough away from competent law enforcement to be safe, and set fire to it with their characteristic bravery. It was the most recent such attack in a continuing battle between the forces of ignorance and brutality on the one hand, and the rest of the world on the other, officials said Thursday. |
The children burst into tears when they saw their school destroyed, principal Zaher Din said. "The children are desperate for their classes to resume," he said.
| "We don't want to be breeding stock!" |
The assailants tied up two school guards Tuesday night, beat them and then doused the small building and two classroom tents with gasoline, said Khan Mohammed, police chief in Logar province.
| "Yarrr! No eddication fer them kids! Illit'racy's good enough for me an' their Maw, it's good enough fer them!" |
Three men from the local village, 35 miles south of the capital, Kabul, were being questioned, he said.
| "C'mere, Mahmoud! We want to have a few words with you!" |
Workers were stringing up plastic tarpaulins across the school's compound Thursday, and the principal said he plans to resume classes for his 665 students, ages 7 to 15, by Saturday. Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal blamed Taliban militants, saying the "burning of schools and education institutions is an agenda of the terrorists." |