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CWA # 1404, 26 July 2024
Pakistan Reader
A surge in attacks on girl’s school in Pakistan

  Vetriselvi Baskaran

On 21 July, militants blasted a state-run girls’ school in Mir Ali tehsil in North Waziristan. According to the local police, “miscreants” planted explosives and triggered an explosion using a remote-controlled device. This blast damaged four rooms out of seven in the school, and a nearby house. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
 
On 9 May, a private girls’ school was blown up by unidentified miscreants in Tehsil Shewa of North Waziristan district, KP.

Similarly, on 17 May, militants bombed Sofia Noor School, a high school for girls in Wana tehsil of South Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). No casualty was reported; however, a portion of the school building was destroyed as a result of the attack. A senior member of the Wana Welfare Association alluded to threat calls being made from Afghan numbers and the involvement of local Taliban factions in the extortion demands.
 
On 27 May, the Golden Arrow Public School for girls in Shakhimar village in North Waziristan was set on fire at night by unidentified miscreants. The police arrested a former teacher named Faridullah after a complainant dropped his name. Following the investigation process, the police sources confirmed his involvement in the torching.
 
On 30 May, officials revealed that unidentified armed men set fire to a girls’ middle school in Surat district of Kalat division in Balochistan. This resulted in some parts of the school being destroyed.
 
A brief background
Pakistan experienced several security challenges from 2013 to 2017, and educational institutions have been one of the targets. Notably, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operates majorly in the tribal belt of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan. According to a Human Rights Watch report titled ‘Dreams Turned into Nightmares,’ from 2009 to 2012, at least 838 schools in Pakistan were attacked, killing at least 30 students and injuring 97 others. As a result, 120,000 students and 8,000 female teachers withdrew from schools. TTP, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), and several other Islamist militant groups across the country were responsible for these attacks on schools, teachers, and students for various reasons. In response, the military took over the educational institutions in several conflict zones in Swat, FATA, and several urban centres like Karachi, and used the buildings as barracks or bases. For instance, on 16 December 2014, the TTP attacked the military-run Army Public School in Peshawar, killing 145 people, the majority of whom were children. TTP claimed this attack was in response to a Pakistan Army offensive in the tribal areas of North Waziristan that began in June 2014.
Attacks on educational institutions are a common strategy used by militant Islamist groups in Pakistan to promote intolerance and exclusion, as well as to target government institutions and enforce gender discrimination, as the incidents force girls to remain out of school.
 
Who were the targets?
The attacks have been carried out by unidentified “miscreants” and non-state armed groups who target, set fire to, and blast girls’ schools. Schools in KP and Balochistan have been subjected to these attacks, which are mostly carried out early in the morning. According to the Human Rights Organization, armed men often target unoccupied and government school buildings. The primary goal of these attacks is not to physically harm students or teachers, but to disrupt the educational process, particularly at girls' schools. Even in the recent attacks, it was found that there were no casualties. Since the takeover of Swat Valley in KP by TTP, violent campaigns against girls’ schools deteriorated the standard of education in Pakistan, particularly female education.
 
Why were they targeted?
First, extortion. Multiple attacks were motivated by a demand for money. A senior member of the Wana Welfare Association said that the attack on the girls’ school in the Razmak area of North Waziristan tribal district was due to extortion demands. On 17 May, based on The Express Tribune reports, in an attack on KP’s South Waziristan district, a senior member of the Wana Welfare Association said: “About a month ago, we received a letter from a militant group demanding a specific portion of our funding. A few days later, another letter was thrown into our office, demanding a payment of PKR ten million.”
Second, TTP mirroring Taliban’s hard-line approach. The ban on female education and female empowerment by the neighbouring Afghan Taliban government has encouraged the TTP to mirror the same anti-education ideology in the porous bordered tribal belt. The tribal belt, which is already conservative in nature, began facing more visible gender biases, which then impacted societal attitudes and reinforced conservative views on girls and their education.
 
What has been the government’s response?
Since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, there has been a marked escalation in border tension and terrorist attacks targeting Pakistan’s security forces and several institutions. Over the past two years, Pakistan has attempted in vain to convince the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan to take action against the TTP. During numerous rounds of negotiations, representatives from Pakistan pleaded with Kabul to disband the TTP, arrest its leaders, and curtail its violent actions. However, no meaningful results have been achieved so far.
The government, in a bid to promote education, introduced the Education Emergency Initiative, which proposes to double education spending over the next five years. This was taken under the Malala Fund. In this regard, the government has allocated PKR 25 billion to education for the next five years. The main aim is to increase enrolment and reduce the Out of out-of-school children record.
 
References
1. “Girls school blown up in Waziristan,” The News International, 23 July 2024
2. Adam Khan Wazir and Pazir Gul, “Another girls’ school torched in North Waziristan,” Dawn, 29 May 2024
3. “Torching girls’ schools,” Dawn, 1 June 2024
4, “Two girls’ schools blown up in North Waziristan,” Dawn, 23 May 2024
5. “Dreams Turned into Nightmares,” Human Rights Watch report
6. “Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2023-2024,” 27 June 2024
7. “Malala Fund welcomes govt’s Education Emergency Initiative,” Dawn, 26 July 2024

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