35 Kandahar professors kidnapped by Taliban group

 Despite a number of raids by Afghan law enforcement agencies and efforts by tribal elders to secure the release of 35 professors and around 10 students from Afghanistan’s Kandahar University kidnapped by a Taliban-linked group, there has been little progress.

The professors and students were travelling to Kabul on 10 June at the start of a week-long national holiday ahead of the 14 June run-off elections, when their bus was attacked in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province some 150 kilometres from Kabul.

They were ordered at gunpoint to board other vehicles and then shifted to an unknown location, according to reports quoting the provincial government.

"A group of unknown gunmen stopped a bus carrying university teachers on their way from the southern Kandahar province to [the] national capital Kabul. They set fire to the bus and took the professors, numbered around 35, to an unknown location,” Shafiq Nan, a spokesperson for Ghazni's provincial government, told the media.

Abdul Tawab Balakarzai, vice-chancellor of Kandahar University, told University World News: “We are striving hard through the intervention of tribal elders for the release of our professors and students but unfortunately there is as yet no success.”

He said that by 18 June the kidnappers had not contacted the university administration with any demands.

The US-based non-profit Scholars at Risk network reported that one professor was injured during the attack and was later taken to a nearby hospital. It expressed concern about the attack and kidnapping of the university group and “the ongoing threat to their physical safety and liberty”.

“State officials have a responsibility to ensure the security of higher education communities, to prevent future attacks, and to hold perpetrators accountable,” it said.

Elections

According to some political analysts the abduction could be part of an attempt to disrupt the Afghan presidential elections, the second round of which was held on 14 June.

The poll to elect a successor to President Hamid Karzai pits former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah against former United States university academic and World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani, who has been the country’s finance minister.

The election has been beset by violence after the Taliban said it would disrupt the vote. Results are likely to be announced on 2 July.

Ghazni’s Deputy Governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi was quoted by the Pajhwok Afghan News agency as saying: “Taliban have told tribal elders from Andar district the teachers have been abducted because of their involvement in the electoral process.”

Ahmadi said last week that the authorities had no details about the whereabouts of the scholars but were hoping to find intermediaries to negotiate with the Taliban.

But Balakarzai, the Kandahar vice-chancellor, confirmed to University World News that the university staff and students had no link with the election process.

Mohammad Hadi Hedayati, vice-chancellor of Kabul University, told University World News: “There are several Taliban groups who carry out disruptive activities on their own without coordination with the mainstream Taliban.

“The abduction may be related to negotiations to release prisoners belonging to that armed group or it may be just for ransom.”

Although the Taliban or related factions have so far not claimed responsibility, the Afghan administration believes the kidnappers are armed anti-government militants and have described them as such in comments to the media.

However, Taliban spokesperson Qari Yousuf told Afghanistan’s Tolo News that he was unaware of the kidnapping and would investigate the incident.

Border area

It has been reported that the abducted professors were ordered to board different vehicles, which moved to different locations.

An unconfirmed report in Afghanistan’s Khaama Press quoted an unnamed Afghan official as saying 10 of the lecturers had been taken to neighbouring Pakistan.

The rugged mountain border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan is a Taliban stronghold and its members frequently cross back and forth along the porous border, which is difficult to monitor.

However, Pakistan’s armed forces have launched an all-out operation against the Taliban on the border, which also involves the air force, making the area unsafe for kidnappers.

Afghanistan’s Higher Education Ministry has not yet commented on the incident and no official was available to comment on whether the abduction was linked to Taliban policy of discouraging ‘Western education’.

Almost all Taliban members come from religious universities called ‘Madaris’ and oppose what they call Western education in state-run universities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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