home, finances, and education,” said Fozia Naseer, CAI’ s program manager in Pakistancontrolled Azad Kashmir.
Although Kashmir is a difficult place to work, and CAI has had its share of troubles there,“ the work of education is so important,” she said.“ Education can create a sense of responsibility and a peaceful attitude toward others, a sense that life is worth living in peace. CAI’ s hope is to develop this sense in the next generation and end the cycles of war.”
Even in Gilgit-Baltistan, the relatively peaceful area where CAI was founded and where it has 59 current projects, violence periodically rears its ugly head. Sectarian violence, in particular, has been on the rise, particularly on the Karakoram Highway, the only road connecting these northern areas to the rest of Pakistan. Gunmen have stopped buses and killed all Shias on board. Most recently, a passenger van hit a roadside bomb, killing at least three people, Agence France
Presse reported. A police official said plainly:“ It’ s a sectarian attack. The passenger van was going to Haramosh, which is a completely Shia-populated valley.”
One attack that made international news took place in June 2013 at the Nanga Parbat base camp, where gunmen killed 10 foreign mountaineers and their Pakistani guide. The reasons for that attack were never spelled out for the public, but many believe it had something to do with extremists’ migration deeper into northern Pakistan, pushed by Pakistan military attacks on their training camps and hideouts.
CAI has successfully worked to get out ahead of that migration. While extremist attacks in Gilgit-Baltistan are less frequent than those in other parts of the country, they create fear and anxiety, and certainly decrease the area’ s tourist traffic, which has long been a major economic driver for the mountainous region.
To help one community prepare for a more peaceful, and economically diverse, future, CAI helped the people of Lasht village in Yarkhun Valley, northern KP province, open a new college this fall. Most of the students attending classes in the modest sixroom structure are girls, said CAI’ s Gilgit-based project manager Saidullah Baig.
“ Many of the girls were at home for some years because their parents couldn’ t afford to send them to some other city to continue their education,” Baig said.“ Now they are able to do so right in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. By grace of Allah we succeeded to keep our promise to girls in this remote valley.”
RELATIONSHIPS MAKE IT WORK Back in Afghanistan’ s northeast Badakhshan province, Jaheed has had his hands full this year. Three districts where he works— Warduj, Jurm, and Yamgan— have been particularly hard hit by the Taliban.
Yarkhun College in Lasht, Pakistan
24 | Journey of Hope C E N T R A L A S I A I N S T I T U T E