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Schools open in Pakistan's Swat despite Taliban fear
Sun Aug 2, 2009 5:19am EDT
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By Kamran Haider
MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan re-opened schools over the weekend in the Swat valley where troops have been fighting Taliban guerrillas for over three months.
While hundreds of thousands of people who fled Swat to escape the fighting have now returned home, getting back to normal life will take longer in a region still under military curfew.
But the sight of children going to school lifted morale.
"It's a milestone," said Atif-ur-Rehman, the top government official in the region after classes resumed on Saturday.
"It's been heartening to see boys and girls going to school in uniform," he said, rueing a lack of transport that meant many missed their first day back.
Girls' schools, in particular, had been one of the Taliban's main targets during a campaign to enforce their own severe interpretation of Islamic law in the region hitherto known for its alpine beauty and passive people.
Where school buildings were either destroyed or badly damaged, classes were conducted under a canopy to provide shade from the fierce summer sun.
Most of the Taliban may have been either killed or driven out of the valley by the army's offensive, but their threat still haunts the people.
"People are scared that if they visit markets, the Taliban may come and harass them," Omar Sherin, a 55 year-old civil engineer said, while accompanying the womenfolk of his family shopping for clothes in Mingora.
"It will take time. You don't expect normalcy will return overnight. Their confidence has been shaken. They've been terrorized."
A decapitated policeman's body dumped early last week on the outskirts of Mingora, Swat's main town, was just one deadly reminder that the Taliban haven't gone away entirely.
Last month, the government opened up Swat and neighboring districts for more than two million displaced people after the military said 90 percent of the region had been cleared.
According to the military, nearly 1,800 militants have been killed during the campaign, but there is no way of independently verifying casualties.
"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"
The main pockets of resistance are toward the north of the broad alpine valley, that was once a favored destination for honeymooners and trekkers. Continued...
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