We see Taliban and other insurgent groups talking of Jihad. They believe that they are the Jihadi fighters that continue to fight a holy war. But over the last ten years they did most harm to Afghan people, particularly women and children. In addition to falling victims to suicide attacks, roadside bombings and other terrorist activities carried out by the Taliban and other insurgent outfits, Afghan children have been time and again deprived of education in areas where those hard-line militants have been active.

Recently, the militants have been increasingly using children as suicide attackers. Women in areas under the Taliban control have been confined to home and are deprived of any role to play in the society, while in true teachings of conspicuous religion of Islam women enjoy a vital part to perform in the society. The new generation of Afghans has embraced a new epistemic modal and system and would no longer subscribe to what the Taliban and other of that ilk inculcate. Under this epistemic modal of Islam, it is education that matters not a destructive and extremist ideology that destroys and annihilates anyone that opposes it and in which there is no place for education and knowledge.

In a new incident of anti-education campaign by the terrorists, a girls' school was burned in the Charparhar district of Nangarhar province on Saturday morning. Reports say that it was the third girls' school in the district to have been targeted by unknown arsonists in the past two months. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor, has said that four classrooms had been burned as well as desks and chairs. Mohammad Asif Shinwari, a spokesman for the Nangarhar Department of Education, said that schoolbooks had also been burned.

Afghan people need to protect their schools against these type of anti-education attacks and do not allow the arsonist terrorists to deprive their children of education and knowledge whose acquisition is obligatory for both male and female Muslims as the holy religion of Islam teaches. It is really high time to prevent Taliban's dogmatic perspective from playing with destiny of Afghan children. It is high time not to let a bunch of lunatic fringes target Afghan children and their schools on purpose. Education contributes to development of an open and tolerant society and Taliban cannot approve it because it clashes with their line of thinking.