Khar - Pakistani Taliban militants seized a government-run girls school and re-named it after an Islamabad madrassa destroyed in a bloody siege last year, residents and officials said Wednesday.
The hardliners hoisted their flag atop the school in Pusht, a town in the lawless Bajaur tribal district and named it Jamia Hafsa after the girls' seminary connected to the Red Mosque in the capital, they said.
More than 100 people died in a week-long siege and subsequent operation to clear Al-Qaeda-linked militants from the Red Mosque and Jamia Hafsa in July 2007. The school was badly damaged and later bulldozed.
"We are trying to convince them through local elders to vacate the building," local administration official Iqbal Khan said.
Residents said armed men led by local Taliban leader Qari Naimatullah forcibly took control of the school on Tuesday and warned that other female schools in the area would be seized to be used for religious education. Read more ...
The hardliners hoisted their flag atop the school in Pusht, a town in the lawless Bajaur tribal district and named it Jamia Hafsa after the girls' seminary connected to the Red Mosque in the capital, they said.
More than 100 people died in a week-long siege and subsequent operation to clear Al-Qaeda-linked militants from the Red Mosque and Jamia Hafsa in July 2007. The school was badly damaged and later bulldozed.
"We are trying to convince them through local elders to vacate the building," local administration official Iqbal Khan said.
Residents said armed men led by local Taliban leader Qari Naimatullah forcibly took control of the school on Tuesday and warned that other female schools in the area would be seized to be used for religious education. Read more ...
Source: News 24
Posts
