The Pakistani government should take immediate steps to protect all those facing risk of attacks, including schools, teachers, students and rights activists, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Friday.
The statement followed the attack on Malala Yousafzai, the young advocate for girls’ rights, who was shot and critically wounded by Taliban earlier this month.
The HRW, which is based in New York, has also appealed to the Taliban, al Qaeda and its affiliates to stop attacks targeting children, schools and educationists.
“Parts of Pakistan are among the most dangerous places in the world to go to school today. It’s time Pakistani authorities understand that expressions of outrage alone are inadequate and such attacks will only end if they hold abusers accountable,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at the HRW.
“The unity of global condemnation and the speed of response in the wake of Malala’s shooting were phenomenal, but we need to see the same kind of reaction every time a student or school is attacked,” Hasan said.
“The schools that have remained for years as piles of rubble across Pakistan’s north-west bring into question the government’s level of commitment to seeing children return to school in safety,” Hasan said.
“This is more than just the case of the shooting of one brave girl, but a crisis for the entire Pakistani education system. It is time Pakistani authorities understood that those who seek to harm students and teachers wish to rob Pakistan of its future,” Hasan added.
The statement was based on a collection of reports on 96 school attacks that took place in Pakistan this year alone, where as the United Nations had reported 153 such incidents in 2011.
