Insecurity in Khyber Agency

In a surprising move to counter the frequent destruction of government-run schools in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, the political administration and agency education department on Wednesday asked the landowners to protect these institutions against the militants or else their houses and hujras, or male guest houses, would be turned into educational institutions.

“The landowners of government-run schools were responsible to safeguard the institutions and in case they were taken over or destroyed by militants or any other group or individual, the owners shall be bound to pay for the losses and damages,” said a notification.

It stated that owners of the schools would be forced to repair and reconstruct the damaged and destroyed institutions from their own resources. “On the part of the owners no excuses for the lack of the protection of the schools would be accepted by the authorities,” the letter added.

According to official estimates, out of 60 destroyed government-run schools across the Khyber Agency, the majority have been blown up by the militants in Bara tehsil where military operation and curfew has been in place for the last 23 months.

The official sources said that class-IV employees recruited in government schools throughout Fata belonged to those families who had provided land for the schools’ buildings. They said that hundreds of class-IV employees had been terminated or suspended for their failure to protect their schools against the violent and well-trained militants in Fata.