By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, November 13, 2002; Page A18
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 12 -- Violent confrontations between police and student protesters over the last two days have left at least two college students dead of gunshot wounds, dozens more seriously injured and several policemen wounded.
The violence, which erupted Monday evening, was the first Kabul street protest to turn violent in years. It occurred on the eve of the first anniversary of the Taliban's retreat from Kabul under attack by U.S. and Afghan forces, and it already has sparked angry finger-pointing between government agencies and allegations that Taliban or al Qaeda elements might have provoked the students.
President Hamid Karzai, who left today for a trip to the United States, issued a statement deploring the incident, calling for an immediate investigation and saying student instigators and police who fired at the demonstrators should be arrested.
Angered at official neglect of conditions at Kabul University and emboldened by the recent lifting of Kabul's nighttime curfew, about 1,000 students poured into the streets as darkness fell Monday and began marching toward the city center. About halfway, they were met by police who, for unexplained reasons, opened fire on the crowd.
"It was nighttime. We didn't know who they were, what they wanted, whether they were Taliban or al Qaeda," said one police official. Kabul's police chief said no order was given to shoot at the protesters, but that they were attempting to burn down a fuel station and were found to have pistols and grenades.
There were conflicting reports as to the number of dead and wounded.
Students today said four of their classmates had been killed and many wounded; officials said two had died. Hospital officials would not allow reporters to speak with the injured, but one doctor said he had seen a dead student's body riddled with bullet holes.
This morning, as word of the deaths spread, angry students gathered on campus for a second march. This time, hundreds of riot police quickly surrounded the area. A melee erupted, with students throwing stones and bottles, police firing weapons into the air and firemen spraying water cannons.
Witnesses said many students were badly beaten and taken away bleeding. Others said the angry crowd tried to attack police cars and other vehicles before being subdued and driven back toward the campus. For the rest of the day, lines of students and riot police faced each other tensely on the road.
"We lack food, water, electricity and other necessary things," said Zalmay Omarkhel, 25, an agriculture student who was among the crowd. "Now they are killing us, too. We don't know if we live in a democracy or a dictatorship."
Police officials criticized the Ministry of Higher Education for neglecting students' needs, but education officials said the campus was not an acceptable place for political activism and that classes would be suspended if the demonstrations continued.
The capital has been struck by a severe utility crisis in the past several weeks, with many parts of the city receiving power only four hours out of every 24, and water supplies diminishing as shallow wells dry up and pumping stations fail.
But officials said there were indications that some students, possibly Islamic extremists, sought to use their classmates' legitimate grievances to attack the government and commemorate the fall of the Taliban. On Monday morning, an unexploded bomb was found in one university classroom and several students there were arrested.
"We gave the students lanterns and blankets. These demonstrations were provoked on the same day the Taliban were defeated," said Sharif Faez, the minister of higher education. "The students had pistols and grenades. Some of them want to damage the government. Other countries had a hand in the violence."
Some observers said the police lacked training and were not prepared to handle angry crowds. But others said some students turned viciously on the police; one senior officer on campus today said he tried to negotiate with the students but was hit on the head with a brick.
Under Taliban rule, no one dared protest in public, but under the Karzai government students and other groups have felt free to peacefully express their views. Normally, Kabul University is a quiet place, but numerous political tensions exist on campus, with rifts between students who speak different dialects, and some Islamic radicals who became students during the Taliban era resisting the liberalization of university life.