Pakistan Shutters All Schools as War Picks Up Pace

Every Public and Private School Closed Until Further Notice

At least six people were killed and 42 others wounded in a pair of suicide bombings at the International Islamic University in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, the latest in a rising string of attacks across the nation in the past several weeks.

The latest attack took the nation by shock, leading the government to quickly announce that it was shutting down every school and college across the entire nation. All public and private education in the nation will hence be shuttered until further notice.

This is a major change from the assorted military offensives across the last several years, where the conflict was largely restricted to a small region, and even when an attack did occur, it left most of the nation untouched.

Not so this time, as every student across the country will wake up tomorrow realizing that the war is having a direct impact on their life. South Waziristan may be a remote and little thought of region, but the offensive is no ordinary one.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.