How a terrorist attack in Kabul killed two bestfriends who were ardent book lovers

New Delhi: Marzia and Hajar were among the 53 students killed last September in an attack on a Kaj education center in Dasht-e-Barchi, a predominantly Shia Muslim and Hazara ethnic minority neighbourhood in Afghanistan.

According to a report in Al Jazeera, a day after Marzia and Hajar’s funeral, their heartbroken uncle, 42-year-old Zaher Modaqeq, discovered a number of diaries and journals among the girls’ personal effects.

At the very top of their bucket list was meeting their favourite author, Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak. Other unfilled dreams included visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris and eating a pizza in Italy. On social media, Zaher posted Marzia’s entry about shopping for books after the Taliban takeover.

After Marzia and Hajar’s funeral, their 22 siblings returned regularly to the quiet, dusty, hilltop cemetery. About a week later, they found several books – mostly in Persian, some in English, and all well-worn from years of reading – left behind by strangers.

The Al-Jazeera report added, “We always knew Marzia and Hajar really loved books,” explained 21-year-old Insiya, Hajar’s older sister and Marzia’s cousin who have built a graveyard library for their beloved sisters. But after pages of Marzia’s diary were shared on social media others learned “how much they liked being surrounded by books, and people honoured them with these books”.

A suicide bomber struck an education center in a Shiite area of the Afghan capital last year in September, killing 19 people and wounding 27, including teenagers who were taking university practice entry exams.

The morning explosion at the center took place in Kabul’s Dashti Barchi neighborhood, an area populated mostly by ethnic Hazaras, who belong to Afghanistan’s minority Shiite community. The Islamic State group has carried out repeated, horrific attacks on schools, hospitals and mosques in Dashti Barchi and other Shiite areas in recent years.

Around 300 recent high school graduates, boys and girls, had come to the Kaaj Higher Educational Center at 6:30 a.m. to take practice exams, said one survivor, 19-year-old Shafi Akbary.

“First, we heard the sounds of a few gunshots at the main gate. Everyone was worried and tried to run to a different direction,” said Akbary, speaking to The Associated Press over the phone. “Soon after that, a huge explosion occurred inside the center.”

Akbary, who was unharmed, said he saw dozens of bodies and wounded people scattered around him. “I was so afraid and couldn’t even move myself to help them. Later, other people ran inside and took us out,” he added. Akbary said he has attended classes at the center the past six months.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But the Islamic State group, the chief rival of the Taliban, has been waging a campaign of violence that has intensified since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Afghanistan’s Hazaras have been a frequent target of violence

Afghanistan’s Hazaras, who are mostly Shiite Muslims, have been a frequent target of violence. In Dashti Barchi, IS carried out a 2020 attack on a maternity hospital that killed 24 people, including newborn babies and mothers, and an attack on a school in 2021 that killed more than 90, mostly schoolgirls. The neighborhood sees frequent bombings of minibuses and, earlier this year, a school and another education center were hit near simultaneously, killing six.

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