ONCE again, the ogre of terrorism is seeking the sacrifice of schoolgirls. On Wednesday, just days after the announcement of a four-year education emergency in the country by the prime minister, unidentified militants blew up a private girls’ school in Shewa tehsil of North Waziristan district; the school administration had received multiple threats prior to the attack. Last May, two government girls’ schools in Mir Ali were obliterated in a midnight assault. In 2018, the year the KP-Fata merger was signed into law, bomb explosions razed two schools for girls and pamphlets warning residents against sending older girls to schools in various tribal areas were widely circulated. Before Operation Zarb-i-Azb began in 2014 in what was then the North Waziristan Agency, educational institutions in KP and former Fata suffered frequent bomb attacks by militants. According to a report, about 1,500 schools stood decimated over a span of a decade, with enrolment, in many places, virtually grinding to a halt. The message is clear. And as the past is not another country, it cannot go unheeded.

It is obvious that targeting avenues for female empowerment is rooted in the regressive propensities of militant groups, especially the TTP, whose latest action is not only a reflection of its own past but also mirrors the hard-line approach taken by the Afghan Taliban, who have clamped down on girls’ education in their country. Hence, it is incumbent upon the Pakistani state to intensify pressure on Afghanistan’s rulers to abandon their anti-women policies and immobilise their ideological brothers. It is a concern that should worry all countries in the region. The tribal belt, ravaged by terrorism, poverty and fear, is crying out for the implementation of an upgraded, comprehensive security policy, including training and resources for counterterrorism units so that effective kinetic responses can dismantle terror networks. However, our security apparatus must understand that the battle against a mindset is harder.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2024