Several protesters on the streets of Swat ended the 38-hour protest after negotiations with the district administration and the Swat Qaumi Jirga.
After 10 years, history repeated itself once again, as this week on Monday, unknown motorcyclists opened fire on a van carrying children to school in Gali Bagh. The student received 3 bullets and is still undergoing treatment.
After the incident, a protest was held by the family of the deceased driver Hussain Ahmed and various citizens. Protesters refused to bury Hussain Ahmed’s body, keeping it on the road in the open for the whole night. Earlier, Deputy Commissioner of Swat Junaid Khan reached the place of sit-in along with other officials and held talks with the protestors.
This kind of incident happened once before in the past and this incident got international coverage as well. Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai was also attacked exactly ten years ago in Swat in 2012 when she was on holiday. After that, she was going home in the school van with the other children.
During the post-2006 wave of terrorism in Swat, several schools were bombed, while in January 2009, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan also imposed a complete ban on girls’ education.
Various terrorist incidents are once again being reported in Swat for the last two months. Last month, Idris Khan, the former head of the Peace Committee, was also attacked in the Kabal region of Swat, in which eight people lost their lives.
There is a lot of fear and terror among the citizens of Swat at this time. People say that the economy has collapsed due to terrorist incidents, children cannot go to school, they are targeted in the streets. Tourism in Pakistan’s Switzerland of Swat, on which the city relies heavily, is also suffering.
