MINGORA: Around 50 girls, aged between six and 12 years, started running helter-skelter as they spotted a low-flying military helicopter over their makeshift school in an orchard in Maniyar area of Swat.
Majority of the students, whose nearby school building was destroyed by militants with explosives, recently returned to their villages after living in tents and rented houses in Mardan and Swabi districts for nearly three months.
“We are not only scared of Taliban but also afraid of helicopters. The choppers spread so much fear among the recently arrived children that some of them cling to their teachers,” Zeba Begum, headmistress at the school, told The News.
The strength at the school was 290 before May 1. Only 50 of the students have, however, reported so far since the opening of schools on August 1.“Fear of Taliban still haunts children and parents, which is why attendance is thin at the school,” said the headmistress, who complained about lack of security for the female staff and children feeling threatened by militants over the previous six months.
According to official figures, more than 200 schools, mostly those of girls, have been destroyed or damaged by militants in Swat in the past two years. They had also warned parents to stop sending their female children to schools as “girls’ education is against Islam.”
Zeba Begum and her five staff members feel unsafe despite disappearance of militants from the area. She says a miscreant may attack the staffers or the children to spread terror. The government should provide security to all the reopened schools, she stressed.
Majority of the displaced persons, who have returned, is scared despite the fact that some kind of normalcy with the opening of music shops, shaving of beards again by barbers and shopping by women in markets. But the presence of barricades set up by security forces in Mingora, night-time curfew and checkpoints on the road leading to upper Swat Valley is shattering the confidence of the common people who are impatient to see their city bustling and tourists returning to Swat.
“We are happy but scared... some people say Taliban may stage comeback after Ramazan as their leadership is still alive,” said Arshad Hussain Khan, president of the Shop Owners Association at the Cheena Bazaar, known for women garments in Mingora.
Sitting with his two children in the market, he said he did not send them to school fearing attack by miscreants. He said the government opened the schools without providing security. “As the situation is still uncertain, I can’t risk the lives of my children by sending them to school,” he said.
Similar concern was expressed by students and teachers at Maniyar, a village close to Qambar, once a stronghold of militants. “Many of my classmates have returned but they don’t come to school fearing attacks from Taliban,” said 10-year-old Shabnam, who said she wept after being told about the destruction of her school while living in a rented house in Mardan.
Demanding early construction of the razed building, majority of the students asked for provision of security, clean drinking water and proper arrangements to save them from the scorching heat.
Swat-based educationist Ziauddin said that around 80,000 girls were at schools till mid-2008. He said their parents removed majority of them after militants threatened the parents and school administration in the valley. He said the attendance was, however, once again on the rise marking landmark improvement in the situation.
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