GILGIT, March 9: The girls' schools in Darel and Tangir tehsils of Diamer district are still shut for fear of fresh attacks by the religious extremists despite all efforts by the administration to reopen them, sources told Dawn.

"We are against the women education as it amounts to seducing them and polluting their minds with the so-called modern education which Islam has always forbidden," Maulvi Mujeebur Rahman of Fukuch, Darel valley said.

"The World Bank and the IMF have their own agenda in this region and they should desist from destroying our traditional and tribal values," a resident, Abdul Quddus, asserted. "Why the Americans are after us ... they should know this is a sensitive area by every standard and hence the US should stop intervening here," Mr Quddus added.

An official of Diamer, who wished not to be named, said that they (people in Diamer) were in favour of women education only up to 8th class, but more than that meant obscenity and way ward ness of women. "What we mean by education is the Quranic education to our girls and nothing other than this," the official said.