All closed schools in Haskamina reopen

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): All schools in the Haskamina district of eastern Nangarhar province were reopened on Wednesday a week after they had been shut down by Taliban insurgents, an official said.

The 23 schools and a teachers’ training center were ordered closed by a Taliban commander Aimal alias Yasir to coerce the government into releasing his detained brother Abdul Khaliq, also a senior Taliban.

Aimal, who had rejected requests from tribal elders and students to reopen the schools, was reportedly killed in a US drone strike along with three others in the Gurguri area on Sunday night.

Before his death, Aimal had invited tribal elders to warn them against sending their children to school. “Aimal was an active commander in the area and had been involved in direct engagements with security forces,” a border police commander had told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Abdul Khaliq has been arrested by intelligence officials. Aimal had also asked the government to provide equipment and medicines to a health clinic in the Gurguri area, besides allowing them to travel on a road security forces have blocked.

Nangarhar Education Department spokesman Mohammad Asif Shinwari told Pajhwok Afghan News all the closed schools were reopened on Wednesday with support of tribal elders.

He denied any deal was reached with militants on the schools’ reopening; saying students of the schools would sit annual exams after two days.

But resident Rabbani Shinwari claimed the Governor’s House had accepted some demands of the rebels.

He said one of the demands — providing medicines to the Gurguri clinic— had been accepted.

A schoolteacher, Najibullah, also said some of the rebels’ demands were met.

The governor’s spokesman, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, confirmed the schools had been reopened but gave no details.

The Taliban have so far said nothing about the closure and reopening of the schools.

mds/ma