No student kidnapped in Haskamina: official

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Education officials on Thursday denied reports that dozens of schoolchildren had been kidnapped by armed insurgents in the Haskamina district of eastern Nangarhar province.

Social media users have been claiming over the past few days that dozens of students have been kidnapped and forced into hard labour by their abductors, a claim the provincial Education Department strongly rejected on Thursday.

The Education Department spokesman, Mohammad Asif Shinwari, told Pajhwok Afghan News that there was no reality in such reports.

He said all schools, which had been shut by Taliban insurgents in the Haskamina district, were reopened on Wednesday.

The Taliban commander, Aimal, who ordered the schools closed in the district, has reportedly been killed in a US drone strike.

Shinwari said militants had previously kidnapped some 160 residents of the district on the charge that their relatives served in Afghan national security forces.

He said those kidnapped were local residents, not students.“The insurgents kept the residents hostage until they paved a smuggling route,” he said.

An official in the district, who wished to remain anonymous, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the insurgents had once kidnapped local residents, but they did not include students. He said the hostages had been released now.

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