Students in Kabul Protest Lack of Food and Power; At Least 1 Killed

At least one student was killed and five others injured after a protest against lack of food and electricity at Afghanistan’s leading institution of higher learning.

It was the first such demonstration against the new government since the Taliban regime was driven out of Kabul a year ago.

The demonstration erupted at Kabul University on Monday night and lasted well into Tuesday. It began when hungry students, who had been fasting until nightfall, as required of Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan, had to wait three hours in the dark and cold for the dinner that would break their fast.

Higher education and dormitory accommodations are free to students, who come from villages throughout Afghanistan. Many, however, are too poor to buy food and the gas lanterns needed for light and heat during the frequent power outages. When the power goes -- as it does for several hours a day -- the water goes as well.

Witnesses said the number of demonstrators ranged from hundreds to thousands. They hurled bricks and rocks at police and soldiers, who ringed the university. Authorities used water cannons and fired guns into the air. On Tuesday morning, the students tried to march on the presidential palace but were blocked by police.

“Is it fair to kill someone” for wanting food? asked Mohammed Ajmal, an engineering student.

President Hamid Karzai said in a statement that at least one student was killed and five others injured. Unconfirmed reports said five died and dozens more were injured.

In his statement, Karzai vowed that authorities would go after the police or soldiers responsible for the killings. Three students were arrested for sedition, said Mohammed Afdal Aman, Kabul police deputy garrison commander.

Witnesses said some of the students had been calling out anti-government slogans, such as “Down with the government” and “Down with Ahmed Shah Masoud,” the slain hero of the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban. An Afghan reporter said he had heard some of the student leaders shouting, “Long live Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar,” the Taliban leader.

“There is no doubt that a few other students wanted to use this opportunity for sedition and will be investigated,” Aman said.

By late Tuesday afternoon, most of the police had left and life began returning to normal around the university, where the evidence of Afghanistan’s decades of war is everywhere. The walls of the front buildings are blown out and have yet to be repaired. Ringing the campus is block upon block of devastated housing, with little left but pieces of the mud-brick walls.