ISLAMABAD: Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Chief Minister Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman’s remarks on schools attack in Chilas have triggered a new controversy.
The chief minister had reportedly said that a purported Islamic State (IS) pamphlet threatening to blow up more educational institutes was found by officials at one of the schools attacked by suspected militants in the region last week.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack; however, the CM was quoted as saying that the attackers had admitted their association with the Daesh in a message after attacks on schools. “More schools will be blown up if girls continue to take exams in schools,” read the pamphlet as quoted by the leading newspaper of GB, Baad e Shimal, while attributing the statement to the GB chief minister.
GB government spokesman Faizullah Firaq, however, denied the remarks attributed to the CM. “I have spoken to the chief minister and he has denied remarks about Daesh,” Firaq told Daily Times from Chilas via the phone. A senior official at the management of Baad e Shimal told Daily Times that the paper stands by its reporter who attended the CM’s presser.
The disparity in the number game has been going on for a while. Hafeez said a total of 14 schools were attacked. Officials in the region earlier said that a total of 12 schools were targeted in a night.
The authorities have detained nearly 40 suspects in connection with the ransacking and torching of schools in Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan on August 2. “A joint investigation team would question the detainees that could help the authorities reach the real culprits.”
The chief minister blamed the Special Branch and police for the attacks, and added that a fact-finding mission would review failure of law enforcement agencies. He said his government had requisitioned the Frontier Corps for security of the schools.
Hafeez said the local ‘Jirga’ or council of elders was also helping the authorities to arrest those responsible for the dastardly attacks. The chief minister also dispelled the impression that the people in Diamer were opposed to girls’ education and said only two percent people did not favour girls’ education. He said there was an increase of 10,000 girls in the last year’s admission.
Officials in northern areas said that senior military officials, who visited the affected schools on Monday, also reviewed the security situation following the attacks, which received condemnation in Pakistan and abroad. It is important to note that this is the first time the name of the Islamic State group surfaced in northern areas, whereas investigation is underway to find out the mastermind of the attacks. In 2013, Taliban militants killed nine foreign tourists in a deadly attack in Diamer. There had been a series of sectarian attacks in the northern areas in the past, but sectarian elements had almost been eliminated in the areas.
Published in Daily Times, August 8th 2018.
