Taliban torch seven schools in Malakand in a barbaric act

Taliban were back to their old barbaric ways, as they torched at least seven more schools,four of them girls today in the insurgency-torn Malakand division, a day after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had assured students that days of militant terror were over.

Taliban were back to their old barbaric ways, as they torched at least seven more schools,four of them girls on Tuesday in the insurgency-torn Malakand division, a day after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had assured students that days of militant terror were over.

HT Image

No one was hurt or injured in the arson attacks as they happened in the night when they were closed, local
officials said. But the entire buildings were gutted to ashes.

Employing the methods they used in Afghanistan, which earned them a bad reputation worldwide, the Taliban set on
fire four primary girls' and three boys' school near Buner and Shangla, next door to Swat Valley.

Though the authorities have reopened some of the educational institutions in the troubled areas, but at the
time of Taliban attack, the buildings were empty. The schools have been re-opened on August 1, after almost a three months forced break.

The Taliban carried out the barbaric acts, even as a military operation is on to flush them out. So far in the last
two years, the militants have torched more than 356 boys and girls schools in NWFP.

Swat valley has some of the most prestigious schools in Pakistan and more than 600,000 children are enrolled in
various educational institutions. The children have already lost a year due to militant unrest.

TV channels beamed footage of the gutted schools bringing the gruesome act to drawing rooms all over Pakistan.