[Peace-discuss] Afghan Woman Teacher Attacked with Acid

[RAWA]

Afghan Woman Teacher Attacked with Acid

Last Updated: April 17, 2002 05:14 AM ET
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CHAMAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - An unidentified man threw acid on an Afghan
woman teacher in Kandahar soon after threatening pamphlets appeared in the
former Taliban stronghold, a city official said Wednesday.

The man sprinkled acid on the teacher Tuesday as she went home from school,
then tried to flee, Commander Dost Mohammad told Reuters in the Pakistan
border town of Chaman.

"But the people caught him and handed over to the authorities," he said.

The hand-written pamphlets in Kandahar, the southern Afghan city from which
Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar ran the ultra-Islamic movement, warned
men not to send their daughters to schools or their women to work.

Mohammad said he did not know how badly hurt the woman was, but said the
Kandahar authorities had arrested 37 people named by the detained man and
found more acid.

"Five of them were wearing the Afghan military uniform," he said.

Mohammad said all detainees were being questioned at Kandahar airport where
U.S. troops are holding more than 200 members of the Taliban and their
allies in al Qaeda, blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks on the
United States.

The Taliban, who controlled most of Afghanistan until ousted in December,
banned women from leaving their homes unless clad in an all covering burqa
and accompanied by a male relative.

They barred girls over the age of nine from school and the re-opening of
many schools last month was regarded as a major step on the way to recovery
for a country after 23 years of war.

Khalid Pashtoon, a spokesman for Kandahar governor Gul Agha, told Reuters
some threatening pamphlets attributed to Jaish-e-Islami, or Army of Islam,
an unknown Islamic group, had been found in Kandahar.

"It may be Jaish-e-Mohammad," he said, referring to a Pakistan-based
militant group fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir region which
Islamabad banned in January.

Similar hand-written leaflets were found last week in and around Spinboldak,
just across the border from Chaman, warning people of reprisals if they
helped track down Taliban or al Qaeda militants.

"The American forces will leave the country sooner or later, but you will
remain here," one of the leaflets read. "People helping Afghan security
forces are being marked."