Taliban bar girls from schools and threaten to kill violators By Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad, Dec 25 (PTI) On the pattern they followed
in Afghanistan, Taliban militants in Pakistan's restive
north-western Swat valley have banned girls from attending
schools, warning that any violators would face death.

The move comes in the wake of a terror campaign by
Taliban targeting girls' schools in the region with more than
100 such schools being blown up or torched.

"You have untill January 15 to stop sending girls to
schools after which we will blow up the schools," Shah Dauran,
a deputy of Maulana Fazlullah, the Taliban commander in Swat,
held out the ultimatum on the militants' clandestine run FM
radio channel.

Girls can no longer be enrolled by government or
private educational institutions, he dictated.

Dauran threatened to blow up all schools that violated
the ban and said schools providing education to girls would be
forced to close. Any person violating the ban will face harsh
action, he said.

Prior to issuing this dictum, Taliban in several towns
and villages of Swat had either barred girls from attending
schools or directed teachers to ensure that they came to
schools in burqas.

Reports said dozens of schools have either been
destroyed or closed through out Swat valley, where Pakistani
forces are supposedly undertaking an operation against the
militants.

Not content with barring girls going to schools, the
militants have also launched efforts to "Islamise" the
curriculum of schools and have begun targeting state-run
schools as part of their campaign.

So effective was the Taliban dictum that the NWFP
government had to launch an advertisement campaign in
newspapers in June-July asking militants to stop blowing up
schools.
But it had little or no impact, neither did the
efforts of residents of Swat, who had tried to oppose the
militant campaign against girls' schools.

Taliban commanders like Fazlullah have said that
female education is "un-Islamic". The militants have also
targeted shops selling music and movies, barber shops and
cyber cafes.

Fazlullah has been leading a violent campaign for the
imposition of Shariat or Islamic law in Swat. After his
followers established a parallel administration in some 60
villages in the region, security forces launched a crackdown
in October last year.

According to official figures, Swat has 1580 schools
registered, with most of them labelled as Pakistan's top
schools. PTI RHL
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