Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer
January 24, 2008 By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks has tripled in the last year in a campaign to close schools and force teenage boys to join the Islamic militia, Afghanistan's education minister says.
While the overall state of Afghan education shows improvement, Education Ministry numbers point to a sharp decline in security for students, teachers and schools in the south, where the Taliban thrives.
The number of students out of classes because of security concerns has hit 300,000 since last March, compared with 200,000 in the previous 12 months, while the number of schools closing has risen from 350 to 590.
The Taliban strategy is deliberate, Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said in an interview Tuesday: "To close these schools down so that the children and primarily the teenagers that are going to the schools - the boys - have no other option but to join the Taliban."
The Taliban knows that educated Afghans won't join the militants, so a closed school leaves students with two options: to join the Taliban, or "to cross the border and go into those hate madrassas," Atmar said, referring to Islamic seminaries in Pakistan where "they will be professionally trained as terrorists."
Wakil Ahmad Khan, a top official at Pakistan's Religious Affairs Ministry, said Pakistani "madrassas are doing a wonderful job by providing education to millions of students" and "if the Afghan officials have any such information, they should share it with Pakistan's Foreign Ministry."
Attacks on schools still in operation have actually fallen in the last 10 months - to 98, from 187 in the same period of 2006, Atmar said, attributing the drop to a community defense initiative. But the Taliban has switched to targeting students en route to and from school or in other places where they congregate.
The United Nations said it could not confirm that Taliban fighters were boosting efforts to recruit schoolboys, and no educational aid groups that could confirm Atmar's claims are working in provinces such as Helmand in the south.
Adam Rutland, a spokesman at the British reconstruction team in Helmand, said the perception there was that more schools were open than in the past, though he added it's well-known that disaffected and poor young men are a recruiting base for the Taliban.
Atmar said 147 students and teachers had been killed in Taliban attacks since mid-March 2007, compared with 46 in the previous year. The 147 include 58 students and teachers killed in a single November bombing and gunfire attack in Baghlan province.
Atmar predicted the attacks would continue to increase unless the international community and the Afghan government delivered protection.
January 24, 2008 By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks has tripled in the last year in a campaign to close schools and force teenage boys to join the Islamic militia, Afghanistan's education minister says.
While the overall state of Afghan education shows improvement, Education Ministry numbers point to a sharp decline in security for students, teachers and schools in the south, where the Taliban thrives.
The number of students out of classes because of security concerns has hit 300,000 since last March, compared with 200,000 in the previous 12 months, while the number of schools closing has risen from 350 to 590.
The Taliban strategy is deliberate, Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said in an interview Tuesday: "To close these schools down so that the children and primarily the teenagers that are going to the schools - the boys - have no other option but to join the Taliban."
The Taliban knows that educated Afghans won't join the militants, so a closed school leaves students with two options: to join the Taliban, or "to cross the border and go into those hate madrassas," Atmar said, referring to Islamic seminaries in Pakistan where "they will be professionally trained as terrorists."
Wakil Ahmad Khan, a top official at Pakistan's Religious Affairs Ministry, said Pakistani "madrassas are doing a wonderful job by providing education to millions of students" and "if the Afghan officials have any such information, they should share it with Pakistan's Foreign Ministry."
Attacks on schools still in operation have actually fallen in the last 10 months - to 98, from 187 in the same period of 2006, Atmar said, attributing the drop to a community defense initiative. But the Taliban has switched to targeting students en route to and from school or in other places where they congregate.
The United Nations said it could not confirm that Taliban fighters were boosting efforts to recruit schoolboys, and no educational aid groups that could confirm Atmar's claims are working in provinces such as Helmand in the south.
Adam Rutland, a spokesman at the British reconstruction team in Helmand, said the perception there was that more schools were open than in the past, though he added it's well-known that disaffected and poor young men are a recruiting base for the Taliban.
Atmar said 147 students and teachers had been killed in Taliban attacks since mid-March 2007, compared with 46 in the previous year. The 147 include 58 students and teachers killed in a single November bombing and gunfire attack in Baghlan province.
Atmar predicted the attacks would continue to increase unless the international community and the Afghan government delivered protection.