January 9, 2006	Monday	Zilhaj 8, 1426

KANDAHAR, Jan 8: Taliban insurgents torched a school in troubled southern Afghanistan after locking up three janitors who were rescued from the flames by villagers, an official said on Sunday. The trio guarding the Qabial primary school in the southern city of Kandahar were rescued after the insurgents set the school ablaze late Saturday, said provincial education chief Hayatullah Rafiqi.

“The janitors were locked in one of the classrooms and the school was burnt. The men were freed from flames by villagers whom they called for help,” Rafiqi said.

He said one of the janitors was slightly wounded while the school in the northern outskirts of the city, once the stronghold of Taliban insurgents, was gutted.

Rafiqi blamed the incident on the enemies of Afghanistan who don’t want Afghanistan to be educated — a term that officials usually use for the Taliban and other extremists who appose the education of girls.

The Taliban were toppled in later 2001 in a US-led operation for failing to hand over Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. They barred girls from attending school during their rule between 1996-2001.

In the same city on Saturday night, another group of armed men failed to burn another nearby school after villagers forced them to flee, Rafiqi said.

As part of their anti-government campaign the Taliban insurgents have been targeting schools and teachers. Last week a headmaster in neighbouring Zabul province was beheaded by the Taliban.

A Taliban shootout at a school which left one student and a janitor dead occurred last month in Helmand, another southern province where violence by the insurgents is on the rise.

Over six million Afghan boys and girls returned to school after the Taliban were toppled.—AFP