Word: school
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Quotes By: "Some of us are saying that 'terrorism' is the weapon of the cowardly. I will say that you may call it barbaric or immoral or cruel, but never cowardly ... Courage is, by and large, exclusive to the Muslim nation." - From a February 2009 e-mail to high school classmates, one of many he wrote defending Muslim extremism (New York Times...
...movement has been agitating for revolution in India's long-neglected rural interior since 1967, and sees any government building as an emblem of the state it seeks to overthrow. Naxal attacks usually occur at night, when improvised explosive devices, known as "can bombs," are set off inside the schools. Human Rights Watch researchers visited a school in Dwarika, a village in Jharkhand where no classes have been taught since a can bomb explosion severely damaged the building in November 2008. The wooden doors were shattered, and the walls cracked, making the brick building unsafe for students...
...Just as damaging is the occupation of all or part of a school building by security forces, who use them as camps or barracks. Students are squeezed into the remaining parts of the school, which in many cases stops functioning altogether. Megha, a high school student in the Mohulia district of Jharkhand, says two-thirds of her school is occupied by troops. "We cannot go to the toilets, as they are used by camp people," she said in an interview with TIME. Other students complain of harassment - the girls feeling leered at, and the boys grilled for information about suspected...
...Indian police and paramilitary forces gear up for a big push against the Naxals planned for early next year, the impact on schools is likely to get worse. In remote areas, schools may be the only solid construction available to use as a base of operation. State education officials say the schools are occupied only temporarily, and that alternative sites are arranged, but residents of Naxal-affected areas say that many schools have been closed for months or years, permanently disrupting education. Burhan Soren, a farmer in Gurha, says one school in his village has been occupied since...
...insurgents, too, insist that they only attack schools that are being used as "police camps." In the November 2008 bulletin of a banned Maoist political party, an unsigned editorial states, "You cannot show a single instance where we had destroyed a school that was really meant for education purposes." HRW researchers contradict that claim, and say the Naxals attack schools as a way of intimidating the local population to keep them from cooperating with the military, who badly need better local intelligence...