November 13, 2008	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1429

KANDAHAR, Nov 12: Attackers used a water pistol to spray acid at schoolgirls in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar on Wednesday, hurting 15 of them, three seriously, the education ministry said.

Two teenage sisters were badly injured in the attack, one of them told a reporter at a hospital in the city, which has suffered a series of assassinations and bombings by the radical Islamist Taliban movement.

“We were on the way to school when two men on motorbikes stopped next to us. One of them threw acid on my sister’s face. I tried to help her and then they threw acid on me too,” 16-year-old Atefa said. “We were shouting and people came to see what was going on, then the two men escaped,” she said.

All the girls had been wearing burqas, garments that cover the entire body including the face, without which few women dare venture into public in most of Afghanistan.

Atefa, who did not give her family name, was hurt and her sister, 18-year-old Shamsia, remained in a serious condition with acid burns across her face.

Education ministry spokesman Hamed Elmi said the attack was outside the Mirwais Nika Girls High School.

“At about 8:00 am unknown people sprayed acid at girls with a toy gun,” he said. “Fifteen girls have been wounded or affected and three of them are in a very critical condition.”—AFP