ISLAMABAD: The federal education ministry has rebuilt a school bombed by suspected militants last week in Pakistan’s northwest and it will open for classes today, Monday, state-run APP news agency reported.

Two girls schools were bombed in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this month. The first attack targeted the only girls school in the town of Shawa on May 8 while the second school was bombed in an overnight attack last week in the neighboring South Waziristan district.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who have targeted girls schools in the province in the past, saying women should not be educated.

The TTP group was evicted from northwest Pakistan’s Swat and other regions in recent years after successive military operations and believed to be harboring in neighboring Afghanistan. The TTP are a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. The Taliban takeover of Kabul has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, Islamabad says.

“Tomorrow (Monday), we celebrate the resilience of our daughters and the nation’s commitment to education,” APP said, quoting the education ministry, adding that 120 girls would be back to the classroom on Monday morning.

“This act symbolizes resilience, defiance against extremism, and a firm commitment to providing education for all, especially for the daughters of the nation.”

Similar attacks also took place in May last year when two government schools for girls in Mirali were blown up. No loss of life was reported in the incidents.

Pakistan witnessed multiple attacks on girls schools until 2019, especially in the Swat Valley and elsewhere in the northwest where the Pakistani Taliban long controlled the former tribal regions. In 2012, the insurgents attacked Malala Yousafzai, a teenage student and advocate for the education of girls who went on to become the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared a day of mourning today, Monday, after Iranian state media confirmed President Ebrahim Raisi and other senior officials of the country had been killed in a helicopter crash in the country’s northwest. 

Iranian state media IRNA said Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and others had been found dead at the site of a helicopter crash after an hours-long search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country’s northwest. 

The Iranian president, 63, was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said what it called a “hard landing” happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Later, state TV put it farther east near the village of Uzi, but details remained contradictory.

With Raisi were Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. One local government official used the word “crash,” but others referred to either a “hard landing” or an “incident.”

In a post on social media platform X, Sharif extended his “deepest condolences” and sympathies to the people of Iran, hoping they would recover from the tragedy with courage. 

“Pakistan will observe a day of mourning and the flag will fly at half mast as a mark of respect for President Raisi and his companions and in solidarity with Brotherly Iran,” Sharif wrote on X. 

President Asif Ali Zardari expressed “profound shock and sorrow” over Raisi’s death, a statement from his office said. 

“Today, Pakistan mourns the loss of a great friend,” Zardari said. “Just last month we had the honor of hosting him in Pakistan. During our discussions, I found him very keen on strengthening our bilateral relationship.”

Zardari’s son and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari expressed his heartfelt condolences over Raisi’s demise. 

“Every Pakistani is deeply grieved over the saddest incident and stands in solidarity with their Iranian brethren,” Bhutto-Zardari said in a statement. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said he was “truly aggrieved” at Raisi’s passing. “Today Ummah has lost a great statesman,” he wrote on social media platform X. “Pakistan has lost a true friend.”

Pakistan’s foreign office issued a statement, saying it was shocked at Raisi’s demise. 

“President Dr. Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were esteemed leaders and statesmen whose contributions to their country and reinforcing Pakistan-Iran relations and regional cooperation will always be remembered,” the foreign office said. 

The development takes place as the Middle East remains unsettled by Israel’s war on Gaza, during which Raisi under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel last month. Under Raisi, Iran enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, further escalating tensions with the West as Tehran also supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and armed militia groups across the region.

Raisi was elected president at the second attempt in 2021, and since taking office ordered a tightening of morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.

In Iran’s dual political system, split between the clerical establishment and the government, it is the supreme leader rather than the president who has the final say on all major policies.
In April, Raisi arrived in Islamabad on a three-day official visit to Pakistan as the two Muslim neighbors sought to mend ties after unprecedented tit-for-tat military strikes earlier this year.

The Iranian president had held delegation-level meetings in the Pakistani capital as well as one-on-one discussions with Pakistan’s prime minister, president, army chief, Senate chairman and National Assembly speaker.

During the visit, Raisi had also overseen the signing of eight agreements between the two countries that covered different fields, including trade, science technology, agriculture, health, culture, and judicial matters.