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Thousands of young women living in a part of Pakistan once considered the country's most idyllic tourist destination have been prevented from going to school after an order from Taleban forces which have seized control of much of the area.
Fearful of violent attacks that have already seen the torching of more than 180 schools in the Swat Valley, administrators have announced that more than 900 private schools will remain closed until the situation improves. Government officials, struggling to organise adequate protection, have appealed to schools to extend their winter holidays until at least March. The future education of around 125,000 young women is uncertain as a result of the order, said to have come into effect on January 15.
In an echo of Afghanistan under the Taleban, the campaign against female education is the latest phase of a brutal and swift advance across the valley led by local Taleban commander Maulana Fazlullah which has included the beheading of opponents, the closure of barber shops, political assassinations, kidnappings and the destruction of homes belonging to the wealthy.
This month, militants were believed to be behind attacks on the homes of the Wali of Swat, the benign autocrat who ruled the valley and who has now fled to Islamabad, and Hameedullah Khan, a reporter for the respected Dawn newspaper.
The Taleban have also introduced a parallel legal system where makeshift sharia courts order lashings and death sentences for those seen to be violating their brand of Islamic law, said Shoukat Saleem, a lawyer. "Yesterday there was a bombing of a school in Mingora, the main city," he added. "No one is giving any education. Unless the government or the Taleban says the situation will be OK, no one will take the risk."
Shoukat Ali Yousafzai, a civil administrator, said most schools were closed for winter holidays. "Once they are over, we will give security with the help of the Army," he said.
Yousafzai said about 50 corpses had been discovered in Mingora this month. Some were found beheaded, others carried a note warning people not to remove the body before an appointed time.
Ziauddin Yousafzai, a spokesman for the Private Schools Management Association, said: "It will be very difficult to reopen the schools as long as there is no political solution to the problem ... The Taleban are now the de facto rulers of Swat."
The Swat Valley in the Northwest Frontier Province, once widely known as the Switzerland of Pakistan, has increasingly fallen under militant control. The military says the tactics of Taleban fighters have become increasingly brutal in recent months. Major-General Athar Abbas said: "In Swat the militants have become very ruthless - there are executions and beheadings ... to create terror," he said.
Muslim Khan, a Taleban spokesman, told the Associated Press they had closed the girls' schools because "they are run under a system introduced by the British and promote obscenity and vulgarity in society".
Terror tactics
* School administrators in Pakistan's lawless northwest have announced that more than 900 private schools will remain closed until the security for their teachers and students improves.
* Taleban forces are trying to stop girls from attending school in a bloody campaign reminiscent of their rule in Afghanistan which banned education for girls.
* Militants have blown up or burned down more than 180 schools, most of them for girls, in the Swat Valley in recent months.WRECKED: Children sift through the rubble of a government school targeted by Islamic extremists in Saidu Sharif.
- INDEPENDENT
