Over 100 survivors of Kabul school attack in ‘deep’ emotional state

KABUL: Almost 11 days after the deadly attack on the Sayed al-Shuhada school in Kabul, many survivors are still struggling with the psychological effects of the incident and remain in a state of shock.

School officials say the students need treatment because so far they have not been able to forget the devastating incident that killed their classmates. The principal of the school said that at least 90 students were killed and nearly 250 more were wounded in the attack. Some figures show that at least 30 students were killed and wounded from just one class.

“What haunts me are the voices of the wounded and the parents who were desperately shouting and searching for their children,” said Samira, a student at the school. “I will continue my classes no matter what happens while I am alive.

This country will be prosperous one day,” said Sabera, a student at the school. “When electricity is out, I fear a lot. I was so close; therefore, I was terrified by its sound. I get scared when I hear loud sounds,” said Nazanin Danesh, a student at the school.

Fatima, a student in the 11th grade, opened her mouth to speak after 10 days, but what she says is mostly about the bitter stories of the triple blasts near their school that killed her classmates and friends. “When I remember, I lose hope. This much hope I had, this much effort I made, all vanished at one moment,” Fatima said. A psychologist who visits the school every day said two days back that over 100 students were in critical condition psychologically. These students were taken for treatment, the psychologist Zahra Husaini said. “In order to help them recover, we try to help them acknowledge the reality of what they experienced,” Husaini said.

One class where at least 40 students were studying normally has had only two students attending over the last 11 days. Buckets of flowers have been put on all desks where students once sat. One of the two students who attended the class on Tuesday was wounded in the attack but survived. There is no news on the more than 30 remaining students in that specific class, said the reporter, who visited the class. “The martyrs’ families said that the government should ensure security and then they we will send their children to school. They said that they do not want their remaining children to be targeted by such an incident,” said Aqila Tawakuli, the principal of the school. The latest figures from school officials show that all 90 students who were killed in the blasts were aged between 13 and 18 years old.