Nearly 60 children were killed in Afghanistan’s deadliest suicide attack since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban militant movement from power. Other 96 students were wounded in the blast, the Education Ministry spokesman said Friday, reports AP.
“The attack in the northern province of Baghlan on Tuesday killed at least 75 people. The dead children were ages eight to 18.
“The schoolchildren were lined up to greet a group of lawmakers visiting a sugar factory when a suicide bomber detonated explosives, officials said. Witnesses have said some victims may have been killed or wounded by guards who opened fire after the blast.
“Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the 2001 invasion.”
Children in Afghanistan are increasingly at risk as the country’s security situation deteriorates and the central government’s authority is weakened, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The conflict between Taliban insurgents and multinational forces, the increased use of suicide bombings and attacks on schools, mean that Afghanistan’s children “are probably more at risk now than they have been since 2002,” said Martin Bell, UNICEF UK’s ambassador for humanitarian emergencies told journalists. More here…
Meanwhile let’s hear what Malalai Joya, who became the youngest person to win a seat in the Afghan parliament’s lower house in 2005, the Wolesi Jirga (House of the People), has to say: “The international community will not succeed in Afghanistan, because the U.S. and its allies attacked Afghanistan under the name of liberating the country and the Afghan women, but they fought against the Taliban by supporting another bunch of terrorists.”
As Afghan police scrambled to the scene of a bomb blast Tuesday that killed five lawmakers and dozens of children, Malalai Joya, haunted by death threats and assassination attempts in Afghanistan, sat on the other side of the world, clutching a cup of tea with her eyes cast downward.
She was seated in a cafeteria at the University of Toronto, dressed in a thick black coat and white scarf, far removed from the burqa she’s forced to wear in Afghanistan to protect her identity and her life. More here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.