Some 1,500 Afghan girls stayed home from school on Thursday, one day after a vicious acid attack on eight of their fellow students.
The principal of Mirwais Minna Girl's School in Kandahar said none of the 1,500 girls enrolled at the school showed up Thursday because of fear.
On Wednesday, two men on a motorcycle hurled acid at the eight girls in a shocking attack that made headlines around the world.
Three of the eight girls were hospitalized with serious burns and others have been treated and released. U.S. military spokesmen said at least two of the girls still in hospital were blinded.
Two girls who were wearing full-length burkas were not harmed.
Mahmood Qaderi, the principal at the school, called the attackers the "enemy of Afghanistan" and the "enemy of education."
"They want our youth to be illiterate and not get an education," Qaderi said Thursday.
He said both students and teachers are worried about their safety.
"Until security improves... they will not go to the school," he said.
Video of two of the badly burned girls shows them both in a state of shock, with one barely able to open her eyes.
Bibi Athifa, one of the girls who suffered acid burns to her face, said she and her friends were walking to school when two armed gunmen on a motorbike stopped.
"One guy squirted acid from a bottle on us," she said. "Nobody warned us. Nobody threatened us. We don't have any enemies," she said.
Afghanistan's government has condemned the attack, calling it un-Islamic and perpetrated by the "country's enemies," a usual reference used to describe the Taliban.
"We hope our students will continue their education after this terrorist act and we strongly condemn the attack and hope we find the culprits and bring the criminals who are doing these kinds of activities to justice," Education Ministry spokesman Hamed Almi said Thursday.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi has denied that the insurgents were involved.
During the Taliban's rule, between 1996 to 2001, girls were banned from schools. They were also not allowed to leave their home without a male family escort.
