Pictures, accounts of school attack elicit anger toward attackers, sympathy for victims

By Iqbal Khattak
2010-02-04

A rescue worker collects books from the rubble of a February 3 suicide bombing close to a girls’ school that killed four female students, a paramilitary soldier, three American military trainers, and a passerby. The Taliban opposes the education of girls and considers it a violation of Shariah. [Iqbal Khattak]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A front-page picture of an old man pulling a girl out of the rubble of her school caught the attention of onlookers at a newspaper stall at the University of Peshawar.

“This is barbaric,” students were heard saying after seeing the images of brutality the girls experienced at the hands of militants.

A February 3 bombing that hit a military convoy destroyed the school. Four schoolgirls, a paramilitary soldier, three American military personnel, and a passerby died in the Lower Dir attack.

Azam Tariq, spokesman for the militant organisation Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, phoned tribal journalists in Miranshah, North Waziristan, and claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

Among the 126 wounded were 95 students of the Government Girls' High School in Koto. They were receiving treatment at a hospital in Timergara, headquarters of the Lower Dir district. They suffered multiple but not life-threatening injuries, doctors said.

Some of the wounded girls are as young as six.

A bank official stopped eating breakfast and looked at a newspaper picture of a girl injured in the attack.

“Imagine, she must be someone’s daughter or sister. What must be going through their minds while looking at their wounded girl?” Nawaz Gillani told Central Asia Online.

Accounts of the bombing poured forth from parents, relatives and students.

“We were attending a class of Islamic studies when a huge bang pierced through our ears. We didn't know what happened … then we regained consciousness in a hospital bed”, 12-year-old Heera, a student of Class 6, told Central Asia Online by phone as she lay recovering.

The military initially identified the weapon as a roadside bomb but later said it was a suicide attack and that 140kg of explosives had caused the damages.

“It was a huge blast”, said Class 8 student Hina, 14. “We all fell unconscious. We did not know when and how [they] brought us to the hospital”, she said in a shaking voice. “We were having science class. When we came to school in the morning, all the girls were happy as the clear blue sky added to the scenic beauty of our village”.

Most injured students complained of back and head pain when the heavy blocks used in the building fell on them after the blast. One such injured student was Class 6’s Sunni. “I don’t know when it will go away”, she said of the pain.

Inayatur Rehman was at the Timergara hospital, caring for his wounded sister. “The post-blast scenario was hell-like, really. We wanted to rescue our girls, but soldiers were firing shots in all directions, delaying the rescue work”, he said.

An aid worker at the scene told Central Asia Online, “There were cries all over the school building as many girls were trapped under the rubble. One girl was crying, ‘Pull me out; I'm about to suffocate’”.

Senior teacher Saeeda Begum said the list of dead and wounded would have been even longer had students not been taking classes in the open.

“I found all the girls in high spirits in the morning as they started reaching the school, and it was not even in our imagination that a barbaric man would blow up his explosive-laden vehicle so close to our school”, she said.

Destroying the education infrastructure is one part of the Taliban’s campaign to destroy the existing state system and replace it with its own. Officials said militants have targeted more than 72 schools in Lower Dir during the past two years. In Swat, the Taliban have destroyed more than 200 girls' schools, affecting some 70,000 students, mostly girls.

Wednesday’s bombing of the convoy also was aimed at destroying the school, security officials said. “Our initial report is that the bomber wanted to strike two targets – one is the convoy and the other is the school building. You know these militants are dead set against girls’ education”, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Rehman believes the attack has caused significant damage to girls’ education.

“You know, the female literacy rate in our region is very poor. An attack like this will force parents to keep girls away from education,” he warned. He demanded a special relief package from the provincial government.

The federal government last May ordered a military offensive against the militants, and thousands of soldiers moved into the Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts.

Wednesday’s suicide attack is the second in the area since December 18, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in an explosive-laden vehicle close to the headquarters of police in the Lower Dir district. The bombing killed 12, including police officers.

Lower Dir is the home district of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the cleric who launched a bloody campaign for the enforcement of Shariah (Islamic law) in the 1990s. Authorities blame his son-in-law, Mullah Fazlullah, for the violence in the Swat district between 2007 and 2009.

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