The Baloch Hal News

GWADAR: Confirming a news report reproduced by The Baloch Hal from a popular Urdu newspaper published from Hub, the administration of a leading Gwadar-based private school once again said it had been receiving letters identifying the senders as two Baloch armed groups that threatened the school to immediately stop providing co-education.

The director of the private school, who requested that his name and that of his school should not be mentioned in the media for security reasons, told the Baloch Hal in an exclusive interview the other day that threatening letters had been issued to his school and the owner of the building in which the school is located to immediately stop co-education or prepare for the worst consequences. The letters mentioned co-education as contradictory to Islamic principles and Baloch cultural traditions.

” We received the first hand-written letter on January 27^th,2010 at our school which said that boys and girls were the future of our nation and one could not gainsay the importance of educating them yet co-education was clashed with the Islamic and Baloch traditions,” he said, adding that the sender of the mail had identified itself as BLF (Balochistan Liberation Front-Mekran).

The director of the school said his school was expanded to four campuses in Balochistan’s coastal town which comprised of a school, computer training center, English language center, arts classes and classes of Balochi literature. With a total population of around 1000 students, females account for 35% of the overall students’ composition.

“Most of the teachers at our school are also females. We are concerned about the safety of our students and the female teachers. If it is for me as an individual, I am not scared of being killed but what should we do? We are sandwiched between the government and the nationalists. The government asks us to hoist the Pakistani flag and sing the national anthem while the Baloch nationalists ask us not to do so. We are between the proverbial devil and the deep sea. We are vulnerable in all circumstance,” said the director.

He said he had initially ignored the first threatening letter but the second letter was thrown at his residence on February 3 which reminded him of his indifference towards the previous letter. However, this time the sender had identified itself as someone from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA- Kech Unit). The only thing that confirmed that the sender of both the mails was the same was the reminder given to the receiver of the previous mail that said “we had told you earlier in a letter to stop co-education but you have ignored our warning.”

The private school that has been receiving these letters is one of the most prominent schools in the area which has been imparting education in the region for the past eight years.

“What I do not understand is why such threats are solely being issued to my school? I am not the only one imparting co-education at my school? There is co-education across the world, in Pakistan and rest of Balochistan too. If this threat has not been issued by the Baloch nationalist groups then they should at least disown such threats so that people using the name of Baloch nationalist movement should be exposed. We were surprised that the letter clearly showed an inclination towards Islam and its teachings to link the threat with violation of religious education. We know that Baloch nationalist movement is secular and not based on religion,” he said.

Providing details of the second letter, the Baloch school director said it had for the first time addressed him with his name. The letter read: ” Listen carefully. We have heard that you are imparting co-education at your school. We do not oppose education but there are some basic rules for education which you are violating. Accommodating male and female students in the same classroom amounts to compromising on our national honor and dignity. We are Balochs, so are you. Therefore, we warn you to stop co-education within ten days. Otherwise, we would be compelled to take a decision in accordance to our local traditions and customs.”

“Why should we be threatened while we are equally patriotic Balochs?” asked the director, “We have even started separate classes of Balochi literature even though some people close to the government do not like this practice that we are educating our kids about Baloch culture and history. We have stopped playing the Pakistani anthem due to similar threats we have been receiving. If stopping co-education is a policy of these groups then it should be applied to all schools not exclusively to my school.”

Independent sources said that the right-wing Jammat-e-Islami had opened a number of schools in the area as well to discourage these private schools imparting secular education. Therefore, some of them suspected that these religious groups could also be active behind such threatening letters issued to the Gwadar-based private school so that the religious schools dominate the educational scene of the area.

” Currently, we are uncertain about our future strategy. We can not compromise on the lives of the children studying at our school. We have informed the local police about these threatening letters we are getting,” said the director clarifying that he had no political links with any group. He was only committed to educating the children of Gwadar.