In yet another appalling act, Yarafazal Kali Girls School in the Khyber Jamrud Ghandi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was bombed, plunging an already struggling region further into despair. This attack on a girls’ school underscores the Paki establishment’s disdain for the region and its people.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Pakistan’s most underdeveloped regions, faces staggering levels of poverty and limited access to education, with child labor rife as many children are forced to work to support their families. Opportunities for education, especially for girls, are already scarce—yet the Pak authority is committed to driving the Pashtun population even further into hardship. In this environment, the destruction of a school represents a deliberate attempt to sabotage even the faintest hope for a better future for Pashtun children.
The bombing of a school in a region already crippled by poverty and exploitation is a shameful act that reflects the occupied-state’s contempt toward its non-Punjabi citizens. While the children in Punjab receive quality education and enjoy the privileges of funding, Pashtun children are left with few opportunities and are denied even the basics of schooling. The establishment’s actions reveal its view of Pashtuns, not as citizens with equal rights, but as a tool to extract international aid by labeling them as “terrorists.”
The occupied-state’s discriminatory policies and brutal tactics against ethnic communities make it painfully clear that Pakistan functions as a nation for its Punjabi Army elite, with no concern for those outside this circle. Pashtuns, Baloch, and Sindhis—the true sons of the soil—are left to bear the brunt of these divisive policies, living as second-class citizens in their own land.