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Police
Open Fire on Afghan University Riots
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Police opened fire on student crowds shouting "death to the student killers"
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KABUL,
November 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Police opened fire
Tuesday, November 12, on several thousand students rioting in the
Afghan capital against the police handling of an earlier riot in which
at least one student was killed.
Crowds
shouting "death to the student killers" were advancing on
riot police armed with batons when the police turned water cannon on
them, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
students retaliated with stones and police opened fire, initially in
the air. Some were seen shooting into the student crowd, according to
AFP. It was not immediately clear if there were any fresh casualties.
According
to BBC News Online, eyewitnesses near Kabul University say gunshots
could still be heard, indicating the situation was not brought under
control Tuesday.
"All
we're trying to do is contain them to the university right now, we
can't stop it," intelligence chief, Abdul-Karim said.
Earlier
Tuesday, the students had taken to the streets in protest at police
handling of a demonstration late Monday, November 11, against poor
conditions at Afghanistan's main university.
Interior
Minister Taj Wardak confirmed that at least one student died when
police and soldiers were called in to break up the rock-throwing
crowd, said AFP.
Officials
said another seven were injured. Two military personnel were also
injured.
"We
asked them a logical question why they did not improve conditions.
They answered us with bullets," one student told AFP.
Wardak,
for his part, said an investigation had been ordered into the Monday
night riot and the conditions in which the students are living.
"Their
big mistake was to stage their protest at night. This has never
happened before in the history of Kabul. They threw rocks at
everything, every car in the area," he said.
On
Monday, November 11, a protest against poor conditions at
Afghanistan's main university turned violent as police were called in
to break up a crowd of stone-throwing students.
Ministry
of Interior spokesman Paktia Wal said the students were voicing anger
at conditions in dormitories on the campus of Kabul's university,
which they say are hampering their studies.
But
the spokesman, who had just returned from the campus with Wardak,
denied reports that police fired on the crowd, killing several
students.
Wal
said the students were voicing anger at conditions in dormitories on
the campus of Kabul's university, which they say are hampering their
studies.
"The
students have had some problems, they have no electricity and nothing
to keep them warm, that's why they had this demonstration.
"There
was a demonstration, I just came from the university with the Minister
of Interior. I do not think anybody was killed or injured by police;
as far as I know, there was no firing by police," he said.
"The
students have had some problems, they have no electricity and nothing
to keep them warm, that's why they had this demonstration."
This
week, Afghanistan's Education Ministry ordered that medical students
would shortly have to sit end-of-year exams, despite appeals to delay
the tests because of recent bad weather.
Some
3,000 students, mostly from the country's poor outlying provinces,
have protested that without electricity they are unable to study at
night or keep warm in the large, poorly-insulated university
dormitories.
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