Diamer Police during a combing operation is reported to have gunned down the prime suspect responsible for the torching of 14 girls’ schools in Gilgit-Baltistan’s (GB) Diamer district. GB Spokesperson Faizullah Faraq said that 10-12 police parties were involved in the operations aimed at tracking down those responsible for the arson attacks. According to police “militants” in Tanger had been attempting to flee the area but locals had surrounded them, after which Shafiq, one of the suspects behind the brazen arson attacks targeting girls’ schools in Chilas, Darel and Tanger tehsils of Diamer district, was killed. Police sources added that a civilian was injured in an exchange of fire between police and the ‘militants’. At least three to four others were also injured during the operations. Meanwhile, police had recovered a suicide jacket, grenades and an array of arms from a suspected terrorist’s house in Chilas. Police sources have been citing the recent incidents of terror in the region as a continuation of the past incidents in which girls’ schools had been attacked with an objective to bar them from getting education. It may be recalled here that similar kind of attacks were carried out by miscreants in the areas in 2004, 2011 and 2015 wherein dozens of schools were set on fire. It is heartening to see that the police have swung into action to track down the extremists involved in this nefarious game plan but a lot more is needed to be done to rid the people of the region of this menace.
This kind of a sick and hostile mindset is in fact the main reason for poor access to schooling in these areas. It is this medieval and conservative approach that has left the district far behind the other areas of the country in terms of education. The district with lowest literacy rate in the region is said to have 244 government schools, about 83 per cent of which are primary level, 10.6pc middle schools and 6pc high schools. According to Alif Ailaan there are no higher secondary schools in the district. Of the government schools, 156 are for boys and 88 are for girls. Of the 16,800 students enrolled in government schools, only 20pc or 3,479 are girls. The dismal state of female education in the area is a matter of grave concern but the fact is that the education of girls will remain a distant dream without changing this medieval mindset that goes contrary to the teaching of Islam, which seeks education for all members of society regardless of gender discrimination. There are a number of other issues but resistance to girls’ education in some far-flung parts of our country has long been an intractable problem that needs to be addressed with proper policy and planning. The onus of responsibility primarily lies with the government but other stakeholders particularly the religious intellectuals must come forward and play their due role in women empowerment and girls’ education that happens to be a key to social development.