Pak Govt. to use all its powers to reopen girls' school in Swat

Karachi, Jan 19 (ANI): Pakistan Information Minister Sherry Rehman has said the government will use all its powers to ensure that the girls' schools affected by the Taliban in Swat are reopened by March 1.

The militants' efforts to deter girls from attending school in Pakistan are darkly reminiscent of the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which banned education for girls and forced most working women to return to their homes, the Dawn reported.

Speaking to reporters in Karachi, Rehman said all efforts would be made to ensure that classes in the Swat Valley resume in March following the winter break.

"We will try our best to reopen girls' schools and we will try to give the girls confidence. We have to show them a ray of hope," Rehman said.

Reopening the schools will be largely contingent on restoring security in the valley, which lies just outside Pakistan's tribally governed belt along the Afghan border. The west is concerned that al-Qaeda leaders have found refuge in the area.

Taliban guerrillas have been waging a bloody war against security forces in the valley for more than a year, prompting local police and government authorities to flee.

In recent months, militants have blown up or burned down some 170 schools, most of them for girls, and demanded in December that all schools for girls be closed by January 15.

An association representing 400 private schools has said they would remain closed after the winter break because of the threat.

Since their 2001 ouster, the Taliban movement's followers have been blamed for scores of arson attacks on schools in Afghanistan, many of them built with western aid. (ANI)