CHILDREN LIVING UNDER TERROR IN PAKISTAN- MONTHLY REPORT (NOVEMBER)
December 9, 2012
Simone de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom 2013 awarded to Malala Yousafzai
January 26, 2013
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CHILDREN LIVING UNDER TERROR IN PAKISTAN- MONTHLY REPORT (DECEMBER)

Despite, the tall claims of Universal education or Education for all in Pakistan by the President of Pakistan at an International Conference co-organized with UNESCO at its headquarter in Paris, the girls of Pakistan continue to suffer from the threats, abductions and killings by Taliban and terrorists bands. Taliban are killing the girls who dare to go to schools with impunity in a systematic way to stop them from getting educated. On the other hand their schools are the main target of Taliban, which are being destroyed on daily basis. The reason for the failure is simple as always pointed out by IRESK that a holistic or two pronged approach/strategy to protect and provide security to the girls of Pakistan first and then implement the education for all strategy. Just wasting millions in failed projects, without cutting out the cancer will not work. The next important thing is to match the promises and words with actions. Words without actions are waste of time and money on conferences like held in Paris. UNESCO must also keep in mind its inherent values and goals in mind and should not compromise on its aims and objectives simply to get few millions. We do not need those to lecture us on education and universal values who are themselves a part of the problem rather then solution.

We think that through education and awareness we can fight the menace of terrorism. The forces of darkness i.e the Taliban and terrorist bands are well aware of the power of education and its mild influence on our future generations that is why they are bent upon systematically attacking the schools the children and the teachers to stop them getting  the light of education.

This light and awareness can protect the hundreds of children from being used as suicide bombers. The education can give power and courage to the children and their parents to stand against the forces of darkness as did MALAL.

We strongly believe that Pakistan needs vast educational reforms and need to modernize its syllabus making it compatible with universal values and remove what ever instigate towards hate and killing.

A recent statement of KP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain that a large number of those (suicide bombers) arrested have been 13 or 14-year-old boys, clearly shows that majority of the suicide bombers are children, which confirm the earlier declarations of IRESK that children are being abducted in large numbers by Taliban and terrorists bands to be in doctrinated and used later as suicide bombers.

It is really shocking to note that one of the suicide backup bomber was a 15 years old boy. During the Bhutto case investigations, the government of Pakistan detained a boy named Aitzaz Shah,  in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Shah told the investigators that he was deployed as the “backup bomber” for Bhutto’s assassination by Taliban.

The good news and a ray of hope emerged in the person of Malala Yousafzai which fired up a grand International mobilization for education of children particularly the girls. Malala was showered with numerous prizes and awards which she really deserved.

  The Times magazine published from London named her “Young Person of the Year” for her heroism “not only beyond her years but almost beyond belief”.

The city government of Rome conferred a peace and humanitarian action award upon Malala Yousafzai, last month. She was also honoured with honorary citizenship of Rome (Sittadino Romano).

Ireland’s prestigious Tipperary International Peace Prize for 2012 was awarded on 3 January 2013 to Malala Yousafzai.

Malala has been honored with the prestigious French Simon Debouvoir  Award 2013 for the Liberty of Women. The award will be given to her father in an elegant ceremony to be held in Paris on January 9, 2013. Later, Najat Vallaud Belkacem, the Minter for Women rights and Spokes-person of the government of France will hold a prestigious ceremony at the Ministry.

Under pressure the government of Pakistan has recently passed a law for education for all till the age of 16. This international mobilization has also forced President Asif Ali Zardari to launch a ‘Waseela-e-Taleem’ programme aimed at enrolling three million Pakistani children in schools over the next four years.
UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown visit to  Pakistan played a vital role in persuading Pakistan for taking this initiative to provide education to the poor children of Pakistan.

The month of December was as deadly as the previous months in which at least 18 children were killed and 33 injured in terrorists attacks. At least 9 schools including a geology department of Peshawar University was bombed by the Taliban and terrorist bands in Pakistan.

Afridi praise Malala and pleades for the protection of children of Pakistan and Afghanistan at Millennia 2015 at UNESCO Headquarters Paris

CHILDREN TARGET OF TERRORIST ATTACKS:

05-12-2012

Bannu: A car-bomb attack on a Police station Huved resulted in injuring of  a child and two women in the neighboring houses including 5 police men.

06-12-2012

One of the persons injured in the suicide blast at a mourning procession taken out from the Imambargah (Shia place of commemoration) Qasar-e-Shabbir in Dhok Syedan area on Misrial Road in Rawalpindi District in the night of November 21, succumbed to his injuries raising the death toll to 21. As reported earlier, at least 20 mourners, including two minors, were killed and more than 30, including three Police personnel and five children, were wounded in the blast.

09-12-2012

The Principal of Al Salfia Residential College, identified as Habibullah Mujahid, who had been missing on July 26 2012, on Airport Road of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, returned home.

12-12-2012

At least, two teenage brothers, identified as, Tauqeer Abbas (16) and Zaheer Abbas (14), were injured when a bomb exploded at Dhoke Inayat in Pindigheb town.

15-12-2012

a)      Bannu : A girl child and her mother were injured in a toy bomb explosion. The toy bomb exploded when the girl was playing with it and lost both of hers palms. Many more children would have been the victims if the girl would have gone to school the same day. She could not go to school due to rain. (express)

b)      A teenage girl, who suffered serious injuries in the bomb blast in Makan Bagh area of Mingora town in Swat District on December 4, died at a hospital in Peshawar. Sixteen-year-old Savera was a victim among the six injured in the blast at her house.

c)      The unidentified assailants had planned to plant the bomb at the house of Kainat, one of the two friends of Malala Yusufzai, but had mistakenly placed it near another house in the neighbourhood.

16-12-2012

Peshawar : Taliban fired several rockets on different installations in Peshawar causing damage to Secondary Board Peshawar, Airport and civilian targets. 6 Women and 3 children are reported to have been injured. 6 killed and 45 injured.

17-12-2012

At least 19 persons, among them women and children, were killed and 71 others injured when a powerful car bomb ripped through the Jamrud bazaar in Khyber Agency of FATA.

18-12-2012

a)      Two children and three women were killed in a bomb blast in Jamrod tehsil of Khyber Agency. Jang

b)      KARACHI: Gunmen in Pakistan have killed six health workers at the start of a nationwide polio vaccination drive, officials said Tuesday, highlighting resistance to a campaign opposed by the Taliban.

c)      Four female workers of the anti-polio campaign, identified as, Nasima, Kaneez, Fehmida and Madiha, were killed in less than an hour in seemingly coordinated attacks in Karachi on Tuesday, a day after a man working on a local government-World Health Organization (WHO) project was also shot dead in the city, police said.

d)     A sixth worker, also a woman, was killed on Tuesday in Peshawar, which lies close to the tribal areas, a haven for the Taliban and other militants who ordered a ban on polio vaccinations in June.

19-12-2012

Three more health workers, vaccinating children against polio, were shot dead in two separate incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bringing the total killed this week to eight. Following the attacks, in which eight people have died so far – mostly women, the United Nations and World Health Organization suspended all polio-related activities in Pakistan (NYT).

21-12-2012

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour and at least eight other persons were killed and 17 injured in a suicide bomb explosion in Qissa Khawani Bazaar area of Peshawar.

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and US Ambassador Richard Olson have condemned the suicide bombing in Peshawar on December 22, 2012 that killed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour and eight other persons.

26-12-2012 

a)      At least two persons, including a Security man and a teenage girl were killed and four others, including two children were injured in separate incidents in Khyber Agency of FATA.

b)       A teenage girl was killed when SFs raided a house in Ghundi Abdalkhel area in Jamrud. Local sources said that forces raided the house of Tila Baz to arrest him for his alleged contacts with the militants. A teenage daughter of Tila Baz was killed in gunfight between the inmates of the house and SFs, they added.

27-12-2012

 Khyber Agency: A morter shell fell on the house of Masit Khan   at village Sipah of Bara Tehsil of Khyber Agency resulting in injuring of two women and two children named Asim and Asad.

28-12-2012 

Charsada: 5 Persons including 3 children were killed in 3 bomb explosions in Charsada district of KPK.

29-12-2012

Peshawar : Two teachers Dr. Asghar and Naveed Anjum and girl student  Samana of Geology department of University of Peshwar were injured in a bombed explosion at the building of the concerned department which also resulted in the damage to the building.

30-12-2012

a)      Karachi:  6 persons were killed  including a boy and  54 were injured including 3 women and 2 children in a bus bomb blast at Cantt Station at Karachi. (Express)

b)      Bara: A woman and two children were injured when a shell hit the house of Gul Marjan in Yousaf Talab area. The children were admitted to a hospital in Peshawar whereas the woman succumbed to her injuries before getting any treatment.

c)      Three women were killed and six children sustained injuries when mortar shells struck three houses in Sepah area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency. The sources said that two shells landed at the houses of Alfat Khan and his nephew Bagh Wali in the Yousaf Talab area in Bara in which their wives were killed and two children were critically injured.

d)      A woman was killed and four children sustained injuries after a mortar shell hit the house of one Asadullah in Gandaw area.

31-12-2012

a)      Bara : A man his wife and his sons were injured in a mortel shell attack which fell on thier house in Jamrud.

b)      Hunar Baz his wife and  two sons  Attaullah and Samin and two daughter were killed when a bombed fell on their house in Tirah, Malakdin Khel area.

c)      In another accident Ashraf Khan his wife,  5 daughters, 2 daughters in laws and 3 grandsons were killed. His mother including 4 others were injured.

SCHOOLS BOMBED & DESTROYED BY TERRORISTS :

04-12-2012

Militants blew up a boys’ primary school at the Tog Sarai School in Hangu town of same District. Homemade bombs damaged two rooms but killed nobody at the Tog Sarai School, which educates more than 350 students.

05-12-2012

A Government school for boys in Yakaghund tehsil of Mohmand Agency was destroyed in a bomb blast.

11-12-2012

Unidentified militants blew up a Government girls’ primary school in the Aka Khel area of Bara Tehsil in Khyber Agency of FATA. The total number of the destroyed Government schools in Khyber Agency has gone beyond 80.

12-12-2012

Unidentified militants blew up a Government girls’ primary school at the Nazir Shah Kaley area of Akkakhel in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency. The school sustained severe damage, but authorities reported no casualties.

17-12-2012

Nowshera: At Bahram Kili, Risalpur Nowshera militants fired rockets at a Girls Primary School and destroyed it.

21-12-2012

Unidentified militants blew up a Government girls’ school in Sro Killay area of Shabqadar tehsil in Charsadda District. Further, Police foiled a bid to blow up another girls’ school in Dosehra village. 

23-12-2012

Unidentified militants blew up a boys’ school in Sarukhel village in Doaba area of Hangu District. Police said that it was the 4th school blown up in Doaba during the last two months. 

27-12-2012

PESHAWAR: The militants blew up a boys’ school in Mushtarzai village in the limits of Badaber Police Station on Wednesday, sources said.
The sources said that explosive devices planted by militants at the Government Primary School for Boys in Mushtarzai went off and destroyed the building.

29-12-2012

Peshawar : Two teachers Dr. Asghar and Naveed Anjum and girl student  Samana of Geology department of University of Peshwar were injured in a bombed explosion at the building of the concerned department which also resulted in the damage to the building.

31-12-2012

Khyber Agency: A school was blown up by terrorists in ghundi area of Jamat tehsil in Khayber Agency. One person in the school was killed in the blast.

CONCLUSION:

The situation on ground is really alarming when we look at the statistics. A new UN and government report indicates that nearly half of primary school age children are not enrolled in school and among eligible girls the out of school proportion is closer to three-quarters. In absolute numbers, out-of-school girls outnumber their male counterparts. Fifty-five per cent of all Pakistani adults are illiterate and among women the rate is closer to 75 per cent.

According to this report, Females in Pakistan face discrimination, exploitation and abuse at many levels, starting with girls who are prevented from exercising their basic rights to education either because of traditional family practices, economic necessity or as a consequence of the destruction of schools by militants.”

The government of Pakistan has yet to ratify the UN’s Protocols, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in armed conflict. Pakistan signed the convention in September 2001. With a growing number of children being used as suicide bombers, abducted, tortured, killed and their schools bombed and destroyed by Taliban and terrorists bands, Pakistan has serious obligation to sign this convention and promulgate relevant laws to protect its children from this systematic annihilation. Ironically, the government has made no efforts to deal with the problem.

Afridi at Millennia2015 at UNESCO, Paris

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