Peace icon’s schoolmate: Kainat’s family faces possible expulsion

MINGORA: A jirga will be convened on Thursday (today) in the Makan Bagh area of Swat to decide whether or not to expel the family of Kainat, one of the schoolmates of Malala Yousafzai, who was also wounded in the attack on the teenage peace icon. 

Originally, the decision was to be taken on Wednesday but was delayed for a day. The move came a day after a mysterious explosion near the house of Kainat killed a woman and injured seven other people.

According to local sources, the blast whipped up fear among residents. Tribal elders from Makan Bagh area convened a jirga at a local mosque after Isha prayers and condemned the blast. They said the explosion was not caused by gas leakage; rather it was a bomb blast. Attendees at Wednesday’s jirga included Kainat’s father Riaz. The jirga, however, could not take a decision on the expulsion due to the death of a local elder’s father. Meanwhile, Kainat skipped school on Wednesday. “She didn’t come to the school due to the sense of fear prevailing in the area after the explosion,” a classmate told The Express Tribune. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2012.