UN raises Kabul classroom bombing death toll to 35 as women protest "genocide"

The death toll of a suicide bombing on a Kabul classroom has risen to 35, the UN said on Saturday (Oct 1), as Shiite Hazara women who bore the brunt of the attack staged a defiant protest against the "genocide" of their minority community.

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On Friday a suicide attacker blew himself up in a Kabul study hall as hundreds of pupils were taking tests in preparation for university entrance exams in the city"s Dasht-e-Barchi area.

The western neighbourhood is a predominantly Shiite Muslim enclave and home to the minority Hazara community - a historically oppressed group that has been targeted in some of Afghanistan"s most brutal attacks in recent years.

"The latest casualty figures from the attack number at least 35 fatalities, with an additional 82 wounded," the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement.

More than 20 of the killed were girls and women, it said.

The UN mission"s casualty figure is higher than the toll Kabul authorities have given.

An interior ministry official told AFP anonymously on Saturday that 25 people were killed and 33 wounded in the attack on the Kaaj Higher Educational Centre - updating an earlier toll of 20 killed and 27 wounded.

Since returning to power last August, security has been a sensitive topic for the Taliban and the hardliners have often been keen to downplay attacks challenging their regime.