Afghan teachers, students go to school in fear

Mar. 19, 2006. 04:27 PM
LES PERREAUX
CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Extremists behead teachers and burn down schools in the Canadian army's new patrol territory in Kandahar province, leaving teachers to assemble their charges underground four years after the fall of the strict Taliban regime.

Even now, schools often assemble behind the closed doors of private homes in rural areas of southern Afghanistan where the fear of religious extremists continues.

A quarter of the schools in Kandahar province have closed in the past nine months, including all 43 schools in one rural district, after a teacher was shot to death in front of his pupils. Another teacher was beheaded in southern Afghanistan in January. <snip>

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