Reuters notes that “The American University of Afghanistan has about 1,700 students and advertises itself as the country’s only not-for-profit, ‘non-partisan, ‘ co-educational university”.
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But Masjidi sounded a note of defiance.
“We were lucky the students had already left for the day, but it will take a long time for us to reopen”, Azizi said, putting his hand on the boy’s shoulder as the pair walked away. “Some of the wounded are in critical condition”.
“As our faculty member Naqib Ahmad Khpulwak, who was killed in this attack, had said, those who care about the future of Afghanistan can not back down to insurgents and criminals who threaten a future of possibility”, the Friends of the American University in Afghanistan said.
The interior ministry said the fatalities included policemen, a university guard and a guard from the neighboring vocational school for the visually impaired.
More than 700 staff and students were rescued after being trapped inside the university complex, he added. Stanford applauds the efforts of the faculty, students and staff at AUAF to make a difference in their country and hopes that this terrorist attack will not slow their noble efforts to educate, change and bring peace to Afghanistan.
President Ghani said he has urged the Gen. Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s army chief, to bring the attackers to justice, reports Khaama Press (KP).
The assault began just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, a time when hundreds of students typically attend evening classes at the prestigious university, with a suicide vehicle bombing at the university’s entrance.
Terrified students recounted barricading themselves in classrooms or jumping from windows to escape. “I was reluctant to jump but a fellow student pushed me and I fell down”.
Authorities refused to confirm whether any hostages had been taken.
Responding to the terrorist attack on the American University in Kabul, she said that the attack was against the best and brightest of Afghanistan. Afghan security forces backed by USA military advisers stormed the campus, conducting a classroom-by-classroom manhunt and evacuating hundreds of students and teachers. But General Sharif told the Afghan leader that there were no “technical traces” to prove the telephonic conversation with militants in Pakistan with the attackers.
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Afghanistan shared three mobile phone numbers with Pakistani authorities, Pak Army moved swiftly and carried out combing operation in the suspected areas and found nothing to substantiate Kabul allegations that the attack was handled from Pakistan.
