by Anam Zehra
There was another suicide attack on a girls’ school in Bara town yesterday, (Yahoo News) this only four days after a government high school for girls was blown up in the same Khyber district.
When the twin attacks on Islamic University took place, I was running errands. Naturally I was horrified, but the gravity of the situation didn't really sink in until a few minutes later when I remembered that one of my best friend's brother studies there. As I fumbled with the phone trying to reach his family, I couldn’t really think. The terrorists, to me, had always been a plague far away… and then the terror touched me. His brother was alright, but seven others were not. Three of my sister’s O-Level exams got canceled, schools closed down and another army officer was attacked. But amid the forwarded messages warning of cell phone-trigger bombs, I receive forwarded jokes from the school girls in Swat. The brigadier who was attacked in the morning escaped with some injuries, and the army killed another 28 militants in Waziristan today.
My ‘Little Sister’ Reshma, talks of how a suicide jacket has been discovered in a school in Swat this week, and a women’s degree college has received bomb threats, yet they continue going to school. Girls will have to take additional security precautions -the army has ordered all students against wearing ‘burkah’ and bringing bags to school- but they will not let the militants win.
As the terrorists’ offensive on women’s education in Pakistan wages on, so does the resilience of the Pakistani.
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