November 8, 2022
By Sher Nadir Shahi
GILGIT
AT midnight, a girls’ school located in Darel Barogi, a remote area of the Diamar district was burnt down.
According to local sources, those involved in the act of arson could not be traced.
According to details, a total of 68 female students had been enrolled in the school, but it is not the first time such an incident has taken place.
In 2018 a terrorist group destroyed more than a dozen schools in different areas of Diamar. In this regard, Deputy Commissioner Diamer told the media that unknown persons had set fire to the school building in Darel and an investigation team had been set up. Local authorities have also begun to rebuild the destroyed school.
Schools were targeted, but so far no evidence has been found to label it a terrorist incident.
Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid has taken strict notice of this incident and has ordered an immediate investigation by the administration, police, and other relevant institutions. Orders have also been issued for immediate restoration of the school.
Chief Secretary Gilgit-Baltistan Mohiuddin Wani condemned the incident and said that the manner in which girls’ schools have been set on fire was an example of terrorism, but that they would not surrender to such elements which were anti-education, and would continue to protect the education of girls. which is their fundamental right according to Islam and the Constitution of Pakistan.
Condemning the incident, Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly Parliamentary Secretary for Education Soraya Zaman, who belongs to Darel, has said that such incidents are a conspiracy to keep female students away from education, and will not be allowed to succeed and the people of Darel will join forces against such evil.
Awami Workers Party (AWP) GB Chairman Comrade Baba John and leaders of other political, religious, and progressive parties have strongly condemned the incident and have appealed to punish the terrorists involved in the incident. A protest has been called for in Chilas on November 9.
Former senator Afrasiab Khattak tweeted that the recent incident of girls’ schools being burnt by terrorists in Diamar of Gilgit-Baltistan was yet one more piece of evidence that the Taliban is being expanded according to the strategic map of international confrontation. Gilgit-Baltistan along with Pakhtunkhwa is also on the front line this time to open a front in Central Asia and Xinjiang.
