Nationalist, sectarian and Islamist networks are killing teachers, damaging education and limiting development in one of Pakistan's most deprived areas, a US-based rights group said Monday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said at least 22 teachers and other education professionals were killed by suspected militants between January 2008 and October 2010 in Balochistan.
Since 2008, more than 200 teachers have transferred to the relatively more secure provincial capital, Quetta, or moved out of the province. Nearly another 200 are in the process of transferring, the group said. "To educate or to seek education in Balochistan today means risking your life and your family's," said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"By perpetrating such atrocities, Baloch nationalists are harming Balochistan's development instead of advancing it," he added. Killing teachers, harming students and targeting schools "only increase Balochistan's problems and deprive its youth of the benefits of education", HRW said in its new 40-page report documenting dozens of attacks.
"Fearing for their safety, many teachers have sought transfers, further burdening what is already the worst educational system in Pakistan in terms of education opportunities and outcomes," the report said.
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