Furniture, books 'torched' at girls school in Gilgit-Baltistan's Diamer | AA NEWS NETWORK

AA NEWS NETWORK

Furniture, books 'torched' at girls school in Gilgit-Baltistan's Diamer

A mysterious fire erupted on Sunday at a government primary school for girls in Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan, police said on Monday.

While the nature of the fire is not clear as yet, a police officer told DawnNewsTV on condition of anonymity that some miscreants had apparently set the furniture and books in the school on fire.

The incident comes a year after 14 schools, several of them girls-only institutions, in Diamer district were torched in a single night by miscreants. A local journalist said that the school where the fire occurred over the weekend was one of those 14 schools.

Police officials said they could not find any clue or indication of a short circuit or some other accident having caused the fire. However, an inquiry was launched to ascertain the cause of the blaze.

Meraj, the chairman of a local schools committee, approached police to file a case against the inferno, however, no case had been filed till Monday evening.

The chairman contended in his application that anti-education elements target schools time and again, so action should be taken against them.

Diamer is the lowest-ranking district in terms of quality of education in GB, and among the 10 lowest-ranking districts in Pakistan.

There are 244 government schools in the district, about 83 per cent of which are primary level, 10.6pc middle schools and 6pc high schools. There are no higher secondary schools in the district. Of the total number of government schools, 156 are boys schools, while 88 are girls-only schools, according to Alif Ailaan.

Of the 16,800 students enrolled in government schools, only 20pc, or 3,479, are girls.