Taliban Blow Up Pakistan Girls School (9th in 6 weeks)

[tekisui]

Source: AFP/Yahoo!

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – The Taliban blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district, where troops are fighting against militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.

Militants detonated explosives overnight at the government-run school in Bazgarah town, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Peshawar, capital of the violence-plagued North West Frontier Province.

"The building had 21 rooms. All have been completely demolished," local administration chief Shafeerullah Wazir told AFP by telephone.

There were no casualties because the property was empty at the time.

"Taliban and their local allies are responsible. They are destroying educational institutions to avenge the military operation against their hideouts in the area," said Wazir.

"This was the ninth educational institution blown up in Khyber over the past six weeks," he added.

Islamist militants opposed to co-education and subscribers to sharia law have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years.

The fabled Khyber tribal region is the main land bridge to neighbouring Afghanistan and the principle supply route for NATO troops fighting an eight-year Taliban insurgency across the border.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091223/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanunrestnorthwesteducation

[NJmaverick]

1. So we should walk away and let these people take over Afghansitan?

[rfranklin]

4. Perhaps we should worry about our own country...

What gives the USA the right to police the world?

[tekisui]

5. These are the Pakistani Taliban.

A whole other monster. There isn't a risk of them taking over Afghanistan. In fact, they said they were sending fighters to support the Afghanistan Taliban's fight against the US, and the Afghans rejected them, rather forcefully.

[NJmaverick]

8. The Taliban is all one group. They are based currently in Pakistan

but they want to reclaim Afghanistan.

[tekisui]

9. You might want to research that.

For someone who prides themselves on facts, you are missing the mark.

[NJmaverick]

10. I have done plenty of reseach and understand the situation quite well

you should do the same.

[tekisui]

12. Seriously?

You are wrong on this one.

[NJmaverick]

13. I am going to need more than you unsupported comment

to negate all the factual information I have gathered.

[tekisui]

15. Show me you factual information, then we'll talk.

[NJmaverick]

16. That's the incorrect answer, showing me the data to support your claim

is the correct one.

[tekisui]

17. You can start here, then you are on your own.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/18/afghan-pakistani-taliban-diverge-on-goals/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8348796.stm

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Taliban are local organizations. Some are moderate, some are radical. When you lump them together, you don't understand the situation. The US and Karzai have been bringing the moderate Taliban in Afghanistan into the political process, paying them and supporting them.

The Pakistan Taliban are fighting their government, not the US in Afghanistan.

[cbdo2007]

2. false headline - I read on the DU that there ain't no more of them Talibans over there!

[tekisui]

7. I doubt that.

There are under 100 al-qaeda, they are bankrupt, ineffective and unorganized.

You may be confusing the two. That is understandable considering the justifications for war require a change of targets, and it goes largely unnoticed.

[berni_mccoy]

3. Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, and Humanitarian in the region

who started the International program for building schools, especially for girls, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said on NPR a couple of weeks ago that the Military increase by NATO and the U.S. was absolutely necessary because of things like this.

[tekisui]

6. The real problem is Pakistan's unwillingness or inability to

deal with the Taliban in their country. Pakistan allows the US to target the Afghan Taiban hiding in Pakistan, but not the Pakistan Taliban.

[berni_mccoy]

11. True. Should we?

[tekisui]

14. I don't think so.

Pakistan needs stability more than anything. Our military presence in Pakistan destabilizes significantly. When the Pakistan government allows the US to act militarily, the Pakistan Taliban is provided a recruiting platform. They grow their ranks and advance their control by portraying the Pakistan government as puppets of the US. When the people of Pakistan see regular drone bombings of their country, they understandably do not like us or those in their government who allow our actions.

[BeFree]

18. Lets see

9 schools in six weeks? Blown up?

Ya think they'd protect these schools, eh? There is a history of being attacked and yet they don't post a guard or anything? Its almost as if they want these schools destroyed.

LIHOP?