SANGOTA, Pakistan — Taliban militants bombed a Catholic-run school for girls in Pakistan’s war-torn Swat Valley as part of a larger effort to subvert women’s status in society through Islamic law, locals say.
Oct. 7 the Islamic terrorist group bombed the Convent Girls’ School in Sangota, which is run by the Presentation Sisters, a Catholic religious order that has opened girls schools around the world.
Militants have threatened the school frequently for offering education to females.
No one was injured in the attack. The school had closed a few months earlier due to deteriorating security in Swat, a source said. Students and faculty left in July following threats.
“The Taliban said, ‘We have asked you so many times to close down the school but you are not listening. We are going to set it on fire,’” said Yousef Benjamin, a Lahore-based peace activist.
The high school enrolled approximately 1,000 female students, nearly 95 percent of them Muslim.
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