At least 55 girls were killed and scores injured in a terrorist attack on Sayed Ul-Shuhada high school in west Kabul, Afghanistan. Although the Taliban terrorists denied that the group had any role in the attack, yet, they have blatantly opposed girls’ education. These students belonged to the Hazara community who have been persecuted over generations by the mostly Sunni and Pashtun central government and Islamic fundamentalist.

The Taliban have fought the US-backed republic and these girls have been symbols of a progressive and liberal future. It is very unlikely, as a result, for the Taliban not to be behind these massacres.

With the way politics of war is unfolding in Afghanistan, we are extremely worried that women, religious and ethnic minorities will suffer on scales we haven’t seen in the last two decades. Not only the Taliban, but the Afghan government has continued torturing, discriminating and oppressing these groups in every aspects of societal life.

On behalf of the Afghan Human Rights team, I extend my heartfelt condolences to families of these girls and the Afghan nation and call on everyone to think and act on how to deter a full-scale war on women, children and minorities.

We won’t forget and we won’t pardon!

Farshad