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Militants behead Afghan teacher for educating girls

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Militants broke into the home of an Afghan headmaster and beheaded him while forcing his wife and eight children to watch, the latest in a spate of attacks blamed on the Taliban that have forced many schools to close.

The insurgents claim that educating girls is against Islam and they even oppose government schools for boys because they teach subjects besides religion.

Four men stabbed Malim Abdul Habib, 45, eight times before decapitating him in the courtyard of his home in the town of Qalat late Tuesday, according to provincial government spokesman Ali Khail and a cousin of the victim, Dr. Esanullah.

The assailants made Habib's wife and four sons and four daughters, aged 2 to 22, watch but did not hurt them physically, Khail said.

The militants then fled, and Habib's wife called the police, he said. Investigators were questioning three people who were guests in the victim's home.

The government condemned the killing. Masood Khalili, the Afghan ambassador to Turkey, where President Hamid Karzai was visiting Wednesday, called the attack a "disgusting action by the enemies of Afghanistan."

Habib was the headmaster and a teacher at Shaikh Mathi Baba high school, attended by 1,300 boys and girls. It is located in Zabul, a remote mountainous province that is a Taliban hotbed.

Cleric Sayed Omer Munib, a member of Afghanistan's top Islamic council, said there was nothing in Islam that prevents girls from studying.

"Nowhere in the Quran does it say that girls do not have the right to education," he said. "It says that "people should be educated.' This means girls too."

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 01:19:08]