LAKKI MARWAT, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - In a chilling reminder of the dark days of Swat, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has issued a direct threat to schools in the Tajori area of Lakki Marwat, ordering the expulsion of all female students by May 13, 2026, or face violent attacks on their institutions . This brazen assault on girls' education underscores the terrorist group's continued war against knowledge, progress, and the future of Pakistan.
According to local sources and police officials, the TTP circulated a threatening letter in the Tajori region, giving local schools an ultimatum: remove all girl students from their rolls by Wednesday, May 13, 2026, or prepare to be targeted. The letter explicitly warned of attacks on any educational institution found violating this edict.
The threat has sent waves of fear through the already terror-weary district. Parents, teachers, and school administrators are now caught between the生命安全 of their children and fulfilling their constitutional and religious duty to provide education .
The latest threat is not an isolated incident. It is part of a systematic, long-running campaign by the Fitna al-Khwarij (FAK) - the same Indian-sponsored terrorist network that claimed responsibility for the deadly May 9 Bannu police station attack and the May 12 Lakki Marwat market blast - to destroy Pakistan's educational infrastructure.
Recent Attacks on Schools in Lakki Marwat and Beyond:
September 2025: Terrorists bombed a girls' primary school in Ghazni Khel, Lakki Marwat, reducing classrooms to rubble. In a separate incident the same night, they set fire to another school, though residents managed to extinguish the blaze .
January 2026: FAK-linked terrorists carried out a drone attack on Al-Fatah Public High School in North Waziristan, injuring the school principal and teachers .
October 2025: A newly constructed government girls' primary school in neighboring Tank district was blown up by unknown assailants .
August 2025: An explosion at a girls' primary school in Lakki Marwat partially damaged the building. Police later discovered two IEDs had been planted, one of which was successfully defused .
The Broader Toll:
Since 2007, over 1,000 schools have been destroyed, and more than 300 teachers have been martyred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal districts, reflecting a clear strategy to damage Pakistan's human capital .
The terrorists who threaten girls' schools act on an ideology that fears educated, empowered women. Their war is not just against Pakistan - it is against knowledge, against progress, and against the teachings of Islam. As noted by analysts, "Those who bomb education fear an aware, empowered, and informed society" .
The 2025 foiled attack on Cadet College Wana was a direct attempt to replicate the 2014 Peshawar Army Public School (APS) massacre, in which 147 innocent people, including children, were martyred. The repeated targeting of schools, from Bacha Khan University to girls' schools in Tank and Lakki Marwat, demonstrates a clear pattern of hostility toward education, especially for girls .
These attacks are not spontaneous. They are facilitated by external support from across the border. The TTP and its affiliates, including the Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan (IMP) which claimed responsibility for the Bannu attack, operate from safe havens inside Afghanistan under the protection of the Afghan Taliban regime.
Pakistan has repeatedly presented evidence that India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is funding, arming, and directing these terrorist networks as part of a proxy war to destabilize Pakistan.
| Evidence | Source |
|---|---|
| Aditya Raj Kaul (Indian journalist) | "Our identity for carrying out terrorism in Pakistan can be anything" - RAW operatives use Afghan, Indian, Bangladeshi, or Baloch fronts. |
| Retired Indian Colonel Rajesh Power | "Fitna al-Khawarij uses Afghan territory to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan," receiving financial support from India. |
| Arrested militant Amir Sohail | Confessed to receiving training at terrorist facilities in Afghanistan's Paktika province, with direct links to RAW backing. |
The threat to schools in Tajori is not a local issue. It is a direct outcome of India's proxy war against Pakistan, enabled by the Afghan Taliban's safe havens.
The threat comes just days after a devastating explosion in Sarai Naurang's main market square on May 12, which martyred 9 civilians, including two traffic police officers, and injured 42 others, including women and children. The blast was carried out using an explosives-laden Zaranj rickshaw.
Lakki Marwat has suffered greatly in the recent wave of terrorism. Local communities have repeatedly urged the government to strengthen security around educational institutions. As one report noted, repeated attacks on schools threaten the entire education system, forcing parents to withdraw children out of fear, thus depriving children of their basic right to education .
Following the threat, security forces have been placed on high alert. District administration officials have convened emergency meetings with school administrators and local elders to devise a security plan.
Police have stepped up patrols around educational institutions, and intelligence agencies are working to trace the source of the threat letter. The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) has been alerted, and a search operation is underway to identify and neutralize the network behind this threat.
In a separate operation in late 2025, eight TTP terrorists were killed and five injured during an intelligence-based operation in Lakki Marwat's Wanda Sheikh Allah area . Security forces remain committed to hunting down those who threaten Pakistan's children.
Despite the terror, the people of Lakki Marwat have shown remarkable resilience. Just weeks ago, the community celebrated the reopening of Government Girls High School in Dallo Khel after eight years of closure, thanks to the intervention of Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah and Commissioner Bannu Khalid Mehmood. The school now provides education for 281 girls whose dreams had been locked away .
The people will not bow to terror.
Local elders have condemned the TTP's threat, pledging to stand with the government to secure the right to education for their daughters. As one resident remarked, "They want to keep our daughters in darkness. We will not let that happen".
The threat to schools in Lakki Marwat is a direct assault on a fundamental human right - the right to education.
The TTP's war on girls' schools is not about religion. It is about control, fear, and the suppression of half the population. Islam commands the education of all believers, male and female. Those who bomb schools act against the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) .
Pakistan calls upon the international community to:
Condemn this threat and the systematic targeting of educational institutions by Indian-sponsored terrorist networks.
Recognize the role of India's RAW in funding and directing these attacks as part of a proxy war against Pakistan.
Pressure the Afghan Taliban regime to dismantle terrorist safe havens on its soil and cease its support for cross-border terrorism.
Support Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts, including Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, which has successfully degraded these networks.
The TTP's deadline of May 13 will come and go. The schools of Tajori will not close. The girls of Lakki Marwat will not be expelled. And Pakistan will not bow to terror.
The martyrs of Bannu, the 9 civilians martyred in the market blast, and the countless teachers and students who have fallen victim to this war on education will not have died in vain.
Pakistan's security forces stand ready to defend every school, every child, and every dream.
