From correspondents in Kabul | September 15, 2008
TALIBAN militants dragged a school teacher out of a mosque in Afghanistan and cut off his ears as a "punishment" for working for the Government, an education official said.
The rebels took another dozen people, most of them elderly men, out of the mosque in the southern province of Zabul and beat them up on similar charges, provincial education chief Mohammad Nabi Khushal said overnight.
The men had burst into the mosque while dozens of worshippers were in a late night prayer session Saturday and singled out primary school teacher Bismillah Khan, Mr Khushal said, blaming Taliban rebels.
"They took him out of the mosque and cut off his ears. They said, 'Anyone working for the Government will be punished like this'," he said.
The teacher, who worked at a refurbished school re-opened five months ago, was admitted to a US military-run medical facility in the area for treatment, he said.
A villager who refused to be identified confirmed the incident by telephone. The rebels had introduced themselves as members of Taliban militant group, he said.
But a spokesman for the extremist militia, Yousuf Ahmadi, said Taliban were not involved.
"Whoever they were, they were not our mujahideen (holy fighters)," Ahmadi said.
The rebel group has killed dozens of Afghans employed by the Government or its international military or development partners as part of a campaign to undermine support for President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed Government.
Education is one of the successes of post-Taliban Afghanistan with about 6.2 million children enrolled in school, up from 1 million in 2001, when the extremist Taliban regime was removed in a US-led invasion.
It is also one of the main targets of a Taliban insurgency. Attacks left 220 pupils and teachers dead in 2007, the education ministry says.
TALIBAN militants dragged a school teacher out of a mosque in Afghanistan and cut off his ears as a "punishment" for working for the Government, an education official said.
The rebels took another dozen people, most of them elderly men, out of the mosque in the southern province of Zabul and beat them up on similar charges, provincial education chief Mohammad Nabi Khushal said overnight.
The men had burst into the mosque while dozens of worshippers were in a late night prayer session Saturday and singled out primary school teacher Bismillah Khan, Mr Khushal said, blaming Taliban rebels.
"They took him out of the mosque and cut off his ears. They said, 'Anyone working for the Government will be punished like this'," he said.
The teacher, who worked at a refurbished school re-opened five months ago, was admitted to a US military-run medical facility in the area for treatment, he said.
A villager who refused to be identified confirmed the incident by telephone. The rebels had introduced themselves as members of Taliban militant group, he said.
But a spokesman for the extremist militia, Yousuf Ahmadi, said Taliban were not involved.
"Whoever they were, they were not our mujahideen (holy fighters)," Ahmadi said.
The rebel group has killed dozens of Afghans employed by the Government or its international military or development partners as part of a campaign to undermine support for President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed Government.
Education is one of the successes of post-Taliban Afghanistan with about 6.2 million children enrolled in school, up from 1 million in 2001, when the extremist Taliban regime was removed in a US-led invasion.
It is also one of the main targets of a Taliban insurgency. Attacks left 220 pupils and teachers dead in 2007, the education ministry says.
Source: The Australian
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