KABUL — The Taliban this week has shuttered or partially shuttered about 50 schools in southeastern Afghanistan, a bold display of the insurgency’s power in a part of the country now at the center of the American war effort.
The closings apparently came in response to an Afghan government decision to ban motorcycles in the southern districts of Ghazni province. Officials in Ghazni outlawed their use last fall after insurgents used unmarked bikes to carry out attacks on civilians and local authorities.
The ban, which is supported by the United States and its allies, has drastically restricted the insurgency’s movement, according to Afghan security officials, and added to existing friction between the Taliban and the government.
Militants responded this week by warning educators and families to keep children at home, Afghan officials said. The message spread quickly through traditional social networks. Of the 36,000 students who usually attend schools in southern Ghazni, about half have yielded to the Taliban threat, officials said.
“In response to the motorcycle ban, they spread the message through elders and mosques saying children should not go to school,” said an official at the Afghan education ministry.
By Thursday, dozens of schools across southern Ghazni — for girls and boys — were either empty or sparsely attended, the education ministry said.
Ghazni is seen by American officials as a linchpin for stability in central and eastern Afghanistan. For years, the province has been plagued by insurgents, who have regularly attacked U.S. convoys along Highway 1, the main road that connects Kandahar to Kabul, slicing through Ghazni for 90 miles. As NATO troops continue to leave Afghanistan, it is the only province that will see a net gain in the number of foreign troops on the ground over the coming months.
The mass closure of Ghazni’s schools is one of the clearest signs to date of the insurgency’s ability not only to combat NATO and Afghan troops but to limit basic social services that Western donors have spent a decade trying to bolster.
