Driving away fear: Swat locals wanted militants to blow up schools

Girls attend a nearby boys school as their school now lies in ruins.

SWAT: Back in the Taliban era, militants in Swat went about demolishing schools claiming the institutions were against Islamic law and the knowledge being imparted there was spreading little except immodesty.

A few felt distressed over the situation, but the locals of Charbagh waited anxiously for militants to destroy the girls primary school, situated right in the middle of a residential area.

“We were waiting for this school to be destroyed­­ — not because we hate education — but because of its locality,” said a local shopkeeper in the area. “We were afraid that blowing it up might destroy surrounding houses, so we weren’t sure.”

“But the blast that blew it up was so intense that it damaged surrounding houses and shops, and yet we were relieved.”

Explaining his point of view, the shopkeeper said, “People in every village, where schools were situated in the middle of residential areas, feared that whenever militants destroyed the schools, the intensity of the blast would damage surrounding shops and houses. So everyone hoped the schools would be destroyed at the earliest, just so the locals could escape the lingering fear.”

The government-run girls primary school now lies in ruins. Students from the school now attend a nearby boys school.

“A large delegation of government officials and non-governmental organisations visited the school. However, construction has not yet begun. This was the largest primary school in the area, where more than 600 girls received their education,” a peon told The Express Tribune.

Charbagh tehsil was once the headquarters for the militants led by Mullah Fazlullah. The firebrand cleric wanted to impose his own version of Islamic law, where regular courts and punishment would be conducted, and schools, for either boys or girls, would be demolished.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2010.