Did English Lessons Inspire Bomb Blast?

The authorities are blaming a bomb attack late last month, which killed nine people and left 25 injured at a religious school in the Paktia province of southern Afghanistan, on conservative forces who may have opposed the recent introduction of English classes.

Much of the school compound was reduced to rubble.

Local officials said they believed the school’s head, a Muslim cleric, was responsible.

"Mullah Abdul Nawab had placed the bomb in his motorbike,” said Mohammad Nazir, a police official in the town of Zurmat. “The bomb exploded 20 minutes after he left the madrassa [religious school]," he said.

Nazir added that Nawab and his two sons, who had been students at the school, fled the area after the attack. Police were still looking for the suspect.

Paktia, which borders on Pakistan, is one of the provinces where the United States-led Coalition is still hunting down al-Qaeda and Taleban remnants.

A press release issued by the Coalition noted that “though the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, witnesses reported that the blast may have come from a motorcycle parked at the school as the students met for an afternoon study session.”

“The Coalition is determined to assist local authorities in bringing the perpetrators of this horrific act to justice. Whether a criminal act or a terrorist action, this tragedy underscores the need for continuing to focus on bringing security to Afghanistan.”

Nazir said he believed the school, called the Mullah Khel Madrassa, was bombed because its students had recently begun attending classes at a new English-language centre opened in the compound.

Zarif Khan, who taught English at the school, said he had been threatened several times in the past, “In the past, some letters warning me to stop teaching the language of non-believers were sent to me, but I didn't expect such a big event."

Sahar Gul, who was teaching a mathematics class when the bomb exploded, said, "After our class, the English lesson was about to begin when the explosion happened, and I found myself with some students under a collapsed wall." Gul suffered a broken leg in the blast.

Between 60 and 70 students were enrolled in the madrassa, which was founded six years ago during the Taleban regime.

For the last two-and-a-half months, teachers from a non-government organisation, NGO, had been conducting classes there in the Dari and Pashto languages as well as maths. These contemporary subjects, like the English classes, were new to students used to taking only religious subjects taught by the mullah.

Ali Jan, a local resident whose brother was injured in the blast, said he suspected it was the Taleban who bombed the school because they were opposed to the English classes.

"An English language course was opened in this madrassa, which caused this tragic event," he said.

Khwaja Muhammad, a district elder, blamed the Taleban but also faulted the government for not providing adequate security in the region.

Pointing to the Shahikot mountains in the distance, he said, "the Taleban are ensconced in these mountains and can attack whenever they want, and the government doesn't stop them."

The Zurmat district has always been classified as high-risk by the international assistance community, according to Alessandra Morelli, head of the south-eastern region for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR.

Last month, two Afghan aid workers from the German NGO Malteser were killed when armed men attacked their car in Zurmat district. Morelli said UNHCR had been working with Malteser on income generation projects in the area, but the UN agency and its NGO partners had since suspended operations there.

Nazir said Zurmat’s remote location and large size - this mainly desert district is the largest in Paktia - made it difficult for the government to provide adequate security. He said he only had 40 police officers available to cover the entire region.

Other local residents discounted claims that the Taleban were behind the attack.

"Some government officials from Khalq and Parcham [two factions of the communist party which ruled Afghanistan from 1978 to 1992] did this [because] they want to defame the Taleban,” said Wasey, a local resident.

He insisted that the Taleban would never target a madrassa.

Ibrahimi is an IWPR reporter based in Kabul. Numan Dost is an IWPR local editor based in Kabul.