Children are among the most vulnerable groups to face violence in Pakistan. While understanding a deep connection between the accessibility of children to a protected, conducive educational environment and human rights, there is a sense of urgency to address militant attacks on educational institutes. Before the Army Public School (APS) attack in Peshawar, which claimed more than 141 innocent lives of school goers, students and their schools have remained targets of militant groups in conflict areas for a long time. A large number of schools in the conflict areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA remain closed due to threats and intimidation from militants. Teachers have been reportedly targeted and killed by militants in parts of Balochistan as well.
Since the last decade, the number of attacks on schools by armed groups has become a growing human rights concern as it is deeply undermining education, coupled with increased school dropout rates due to security fears. Attacks on schools have been used as a tool to discourage students, in particular girl students, from gaining education. On May 6, 2015 one person lost his life while three others sustained injuries in a terrorist attack at a school’s grounds when a football match was going on in Alizai area of Kurram Agency in FATA. Security forces sprung into action and killed one suicide bomber while another bomber blew himself up.
On December 16, 2014, Pakistan witnessed one of the most brutal attacks on its children at the APS in Peshawar in which 141 students, including teachers and the school principal, were killed. On October 27, 2014, a government girls’ primary school was blown up by unidentified militants in Bara, Khyber Agency. No casualties were reported but parents became apprehensive about the situation and have reportedly left the village in fear. On September 9, 2014, a newly reconstructed girls’ primary school in Bajaur Agency was targeted by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who had previously destroyed the same school in 2010. It is noteworthy to mention that in Bajaur Agency more than 97 schools have been destroyed out of a total of 600 schools in the FATA region. It is perceived that the attacks are in retaliation against the army operation against militant groups in North Waziristan.
On January 9, 2014, a suicide bomber attempted to blow up a school in Hangu district but it was thwarted by a student, Aitzaz Ahsan, at the gates of the Government High School in Ibrahimzai. Aitzaz gave up his life along with that of the suicide bomber thus saving the lives of hundreds of students present in the school. The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Lashker-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in the Shia dominated village. In February of the same year, an improvised explosives device exploded outside a school in Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, injuring 13 school children and the principal. On September 5, 2013 a bomb blast outside the Government Girls’ Primary School in Bannu district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, allegedly carried out by the local Taliban, injured 13 female students under the age of 10.
On July 13, 2013, a girls’ primary school was blown up by a remote controlled device in Bannu. Fortunately, no injuries were reported. On June 16, 2013, a female suicide bomber detonated herself on the premises of Sardar Bahadur Khan University, killing 15 girl students and injuring 19 in the vicinity. The LeJ claimed credit for the attack. On October 2, 2012, a young education activist and student was shot in the head by Taliban militants in Mingora and two others were injured. Malala survived the attack. On September 13, 2011, a school van was ambushed by militants in Mattani near Peshawar, killing four children and the driver.
The list goes on. In a June 2015 report presented by a special representative of the secretary general of the UN’s Children and Armed Conflict, a total of 40 secular schools were targeted last year. A year before, in 2013, the number of attacks was 78 and, in 2012, it was 118, with most attacks occurring in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, followed by FATA and Balochistan. For the last three years, the total number of attacks stands at 236. According to Save the Children and the Global Coalition to Protect Education (GCPEA), Pakistan witnessed more than 800 attacks on schools between 2009 and 2012, and the numbers are worryingly increasing. However, due to inaccessibility faced by journalists and activists covering this issue, the true total can be higher than those recorded by the media.
The string of attacks on schools is a testimony of the deplorable situation of schools and education in conflict areas where a good number of children lack confidence in attending classes and, hence, remain deprived of education. The high dropout ratio of children from school may be attributed to a growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs). This is an alarming sign for the state as these children are prone to be recruited by militants and other armed groups. IDP children of school going age from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA are estimated by FATA’s Disaster Management Authority as being above 300,000.
The policies employed by the state to deal with security issues have been ill-advised and lack solutions for the long-term. The National Action Plan (NAP) was hastily drafted as a counter terrorism plan but it lacks feasibility and has not been properly implemented. In one of the government’s bizarre responses to the APS attack, teachers were permitted to carry weapons and were given training to use them. An amateurish weapon used by a teacher recently injured and killed a student of class five earlier in June 2015.
In the federal budget announced in June this year, education has received a share of a mere 2.1 percent, which is logically too low to cover all the costs needed for securing and protecting schools. Accessibility to protected and well-equipped learning institutes is the fundamental right of every child and it is the responsibility of the state to ensure this to its children.
The writer is a freelance columnist and may be contacted at [email protected]