ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: The government has ignored pleas for help from civilians living in the tribal area along the Afghan border, who are being targeted by militants, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan claimed on Sunday.

The government was turning a blind eye as militants in the troubled region bombed girls schools, threatened teachers and attacked shops selling videos and music deemed un-Islamic, the HRCP said. The commission based its analysis on a two-day review of the situation in the NWFP and semi-autonomous tribal districts.

“The NWFP presents a disturbing picture of religious militancy that is increasingly manifesting itself in vigilante actions against the population and creating widespread fear,” commission chairperson Asma Jahangir told reporters.

“The government has continuously refused to heed complaints and warnings from both the public and civil society organisations and has adopted a policy of appeasement of militants,” she said.

“The government has chosen to look the other way when the militants have blown up girls schools and video shops, threatened teachers, students, doctors, nurses, NGO workers and barbers.”

Pakistan has been fighting extremists along the border where the US alleges Al Qaeda and Taliban extremists have regrouped after 9/11.

But militants in the conservative region are striving to impose a strict brand of Islam, the commission said.

“A situation of civil strife” exists in both the tribal areas and the surrounding districts of Tank, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, Ms Jahangir said.

In Swat valley, the education department had asked girls to wear burqas to school after threats from militants. The only Christian missionary school in the area had shut down after receiving threats, she said.

The HRCP chief said the security forces, after coming under consistent attack, had started abandoning their posts, leaving people at the mercy of militants.

She said she doubted that free and fair general elections, due in the country early next year, could be held in the regions.—AFP