Sunday Times 2
Woman teacher is killed in drive-by shooting in Pakistan
View(s):By Suzannah Hills
The drive-by shooting of a female teacher 200 metres from her school in Pakistan yesterday has sparked calls for protection of the girl pupils being taught there. Shahnaz Nazli, 41, was on her way to the all girl’s school where she worked in Shahkas, near the country’s volatile tribal belt on the Afghan border, when two men on a motorcycle pulled up and opened fire.
Shot dead: Mother-of-one Shahnaz Nazli was gunned down by two men on a motorbike just 200m from the school where she worked in Shahkas near a volatile region on the Afghan border
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but there has been a strong Islamist militant movement against girls being educated in the region. The death of Ms Nazli, who was married with a young son, at the school near the town of Jamrud in Khyber tribal district, between the northwestern city of Peshawar and the Afghan border, has led to a petition for the government to do more to protect girls and teachers attending school.
Local government official Asmatullah Wazir said: ‘The teacher was killed after unknown gunmen on a motorbike shot her and fled.
‘We have arrested 18 suspects in an operation to find the culprits.’ Northwest Pakistan has been a hotbed of militant activity along the Afghan border with the Taliban banning all girls in the region from attending school.
This latest attack comes after the attempted murder of teenage women’s rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai by Taliban soldiers opposed to female education last year. The 14-year-old was heading home in a school van in the Swat Valley, a Taliban stronghold, when masked men stopped the vehicle.
They demanded that the other girls identify Malala, who had written vocal pieces supporting women’s right to an education.
When they identified Malala, the militants shot her in the head and neck. Close to death, she was flown to Britain for treatment, and surgeons at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham saved her life.
She had a five-hour operation to fit a titanium plate over her damaged skull. She also had a cochlear implant fitted as her injuries had left her partially deaf. Malala left hospital in January and started lessons at the fee-paying Edgbaston High School for Girls in Birmingham earlier this month.
The schoolgirl’s plight attracted international attention, and she became a symbol of the battle for girls’ education around the world.
Malala’s school fees are being paid by the Pakistani government which has vowed to do more to fight for women’s rights.
© Daily Mail, London
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