Militants planted explosives in Afia Islamic Girls Public School in Drozanda Tehsil Shewa of North Waziristan on Thursday, damaging a portion of the building, but no casualties were reported as the attack took place around 1am. It was the only functioning school for girl children in the area and was privately owned, per local media.
While condemning the attack, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) stated, ““While only yesterday, Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, declared an education emergency in the country pledging to work towards enrolling 26m out-of-school children in the country, destruction of a girls’ school in a remote and underserved area is a heinous crime detrimental to national progress.”
Former member national assembly Mohsin Dawar from North Waziristan, who has extensively sounded the alarm on presence of militants in the region and advocated for children’s access to education, lamented the recent attack on X, “the future of our children is under attack. Education scares terrorists. Taliban banned girls from getting an education in Afghanistan and their affiliates are attacking girls' schools in our areas.”
A private girls school in Shewa, N. Waziristan was blown up by terrorists. The future of our children is under attack. Education scares terrorists. Taliban banned girls from getting an education in Afghanistan and their affiliates are attacking girls schools in our areas. pic.twitter.com/YTnuX9nzKe
— Mohsin Dawar (@mjdawar) May 10, 2024
During the peak of the "war on terror" till 2019, thousands of girls' schools were blown up in northwestern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the former tribal agencies, now merged with KP, by Pakistani Taliban and their affiliates, as they are against girls' education.