Pakistan tribal leader says militants bombing schools are ‘fed’ by the State

AASTHA SINGH and MANISHA MONDAL

Tribal leader and ex-speaker of Gilgit Baltistan assembly Malik Mohammad Miskeen Tuesday, in an interview with journalist Shahzeb Jillani, said that there was a link between the torching of schools — over half of them all-girls — in Gilgit Baltistan last month and ‘jihadi’ training camps in that region. Miskeen said people were being trained in these camps, which were being allowed to function by the “State”. These men had carried out the attacks, he added.

He said that after the decision was made to shut down the training camps, the militants responded by burning down these 12 schools.

Miskeen said the militants were “people nourished by the State” but had now become a threat to this very establishment that had first encouraged them.

In his tweet, Jillani, the interviewer, mentioned that the specific part of the clip when Miskeen said these words were not considered ‘worthy’ of going on air by his TV channel.

@JungjooGernail, who doesn’t give his real name on Twitter, but makes satirical and perceptive comments, shared Jillani’s 1-minute interview clip, although the entire interview was of 10 minutes. In Punjabi English, @JungjooGernail took a dig at the Pakistan military’s strategic role in training and providing safe havens to militants who travel to Afghanistan and India to carry out attacks. Specifically, he reserved his pickled humour for Asif Ghafoor, the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (media wing of the Pakistani army).

Jungjoo Gernail @GernailSaheb

Ex-speaker Gilgit Balitistan Assembly, Malik Miskeen says school torching is product of jihad factories

Oye Ghafoor! Is he praising us or cursing us??

Ghafoor: huzoor I think he’s saying ye jo deshtgardi hai isky peechy wardi hai :/

6:08 PM - Sep 4, 2018

https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/pak-tribal-leader-says-militants-bombing-schools-are-fed-by-the-state/112279/