Taliban Is Blamed for Beheading Christian Teacher

Since 01-05-06

May His Soul Rest in Peace

By NOOR KHAN Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3564565.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Officials on Wednesday blamed Taliban militants for beheading a teacher in a central Afghan town, the latest in a string of attacks against educators at schools where girls study.

Armed men decapitated Malim Abdul Habib in his home in the town of Qalat late Tuesday and forced his wife and children to watch, said Ali Khail, a provincial government spokesman. The assailant did not harm the other relatives, he said.

The attackers then fled and the wife called the police, Khail said. Police are questioning three people who were guests in the victim's home at the time.

Habib was the headmaster of Shaikh Mathi Baba high school, which is attended by 1,300 boys and girls.

The insurgents claim that educating girls is against Islam and they even oppose government-funded boys' schools because they teach subjects other than religion.

Zabul province's education director Nabi Khushal blamed Taliban rebels.

"Only the Taliban are against girls being educated," he said. "The Taliban often attack our teachers and beat them. But this is the first time one has been killed in this province."

Khushal said he was not aware of any previous threat against Habib, whose funeral Wednesday was attended by hundreds of students and teachers.

Taliban spokesmen and commanders in the region, one of the most volatile in Afghanistan, could not immediately be reached for comment.

In the past year, Taliban insurgents have occasionally put up posters around Qalat demanding girls' schools be closed and threatening to kill teachers, Khushal said.

He said 100 of the province's 170 registered schools have been closed in the past two to three years because of poor security. Of the 35,000 students attending schools in Zabul, 2,700 were girls, he said.

There has been a series of attacks on girls' schools and teachers across Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. In October, gunmen killed a headmaster in front of his students at a boys' school in southern Kandahar province.

A spokesman for UNICEF said the attacks were "incredibly worrying."

"Militants are clearly trying to intimidate communities and force families not to send their girls to school," said Edward Carwardine. "We hope these incidents will not deter families. ... Fortunately, so far we have not seen a decline in girls attending."

The former Taliban regime prohibited girls from attending school as part of its widely criticized drive to establish what it considered a "pure" Islamic state.

Hundreds of thousands of girls have returned to school since the Taliban's ouster, but opposition remains in conservative areas of rural Afghanistan.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks against government targets in the past year _ the deadliest fighting with joint Afghan government-U.S. coalition forces since the hard-line movement was ousted.