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| India-Pakistan | |
| Taliban seize Bajaur girls' school, name it Jamia Hafsa | |
| 2008-06-26 | |
Local Taliban seized a government-run girlsÂ’ school and renamed it the Jamia Hafsa, residents and officials said on Wednesday.
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 also be seized to teach religious education. “We want to convert it into a madrassa, because the Western system of education is not good for girls,” Naimatullah’s spokesman Ghulam Waheed told AFP. Revenge: “We have named it Jamia Hafsa to avenge the attack on the Lal Masjid’s madrassa, which was razed to the ground during the army operation last year,” he said. He criticised the previous government for not rebuilding the madrassa for female students. “We will take over other schools also and name them after Jamia Hafsa,” he said. More than 100 people died in a weeklong siege and subsequent operation to clear Al Qaeda-linked militants from the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa in July 2007. The school was badly damaged and later bulldozed. President Pervez Musharraf ordered the military to storm the mosque after a lengthy siege. The raid provoked anger among Islamic militants, particularly in lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border, and sparked an upsurge in deadly violence, including suicide attacks. Bajaur is a stronghold of Taliban militants who have been blamed for a wave of bombings in Pakistan over the last year. The rebels began peace talks with the new government after it came to power in March. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Yeah - you get woman packing as in This awesome photo (follow the link so I won't hotlink) - Safe for Work (unless you work in a Mosque...) |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-06-26 15:40 |
| #3 ARCLIGHT would scare 'em sure enough but I still think they're even more afraid of letting their womenfolk get educated. A woman gets it into her head that she's not a cow or a goat or a camel and you never know where that might lead. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2008-06-26 14:51 |
| #2 OK, now run an ARCLIGHT strike down through the middle of that school, and see how the "militants" like it. Explain to them - in Urdu, Pashto, and Arabic, so all of them can understand - that the same thing will happen to every school, district office, or household they "liberate". Napalm or Hellfire-zap 'em as they run away. That's what we did in Laos. An ARCLIGHT strike was the one thing the NVA was terrified of. The problem is, we didn't use them right. I'm sure I can come up with some more useful ideas this time, and so can several thousand other Vietnam vets. Just ask us. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-06-26 13:38 |
| #1 Those boys are scared to death of letting their womenfolk get educated. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2008-06-26 11:47 |