School torching

A girls’ school in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district was torched by unidentified miscreants, bringing back horrible memories of 2018, when TTP-linked terrorists set fire to a dozen schools in the district. Initial reports suggest that witnesses saw the arsonists fleeing the scene, and that their malicious actions led to the entire building and all the furniture inside Girls Middle School in Darail being reduced to ashes. The police have registered a case under sections relating to terrorism, conspiracy, vandalism and arson, but have no named suspects. The Chief Minister has also ordered a report from the police and for immediate repairs on the school to begin.

However, even the temporary loss of their classrooms has infuriated the school’s students, who were joined by thousands of their peers from across the region in protests against the attack. The protesters demanded the arrest of the ‘terrorist’ attackers and for harsh punishment to be meted out to them. Local authorities, including the Chief Secretary, assured that this would be the case, saying: “We will not let them down and will hunt the miscreants and bring them to justice.” He also promised that despite the scale of damage, the school will be ‘fully functional’ in a week.

The incident comes barely a month after hundreds of women and girls participated in the area’s first-ever regional sports moot in Gilgit, which was held despite loud opposition from religious leaders, who echoed the old refrain of ‘spreading vulgarity’, even though the event was closed to men. But that event went by without incident, though it was held amid high-level security. However, that may be the explanation — miscreants were seeking soft targets.

On that note, it is commendable that the G-B government is also moving to increase security around schools, with the chief secretary saying that the DIG, SSP, and the region’s commissioner and DC are being tasked with ensuring that educational institutes are safe for students as education is “an inalienable right”, both as Muslims and under the Constitution of Pakistan.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2022.

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