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.
