Echoes of Resistance Swat Students Unite Against College Privatization
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Under the shadow of Swat Valley's towering peaks, where the echoes of past struggles still linger, a new wave of defiance swept through Matta on October 3, 2025. It started at Government Degree College, where 19-year-old history student Zahid Khan gathered his classmates, their faces etched with determination. "Education is our right, not a commodity," Zahid proclaimed, holding a banner scrawled with "تعلیم کی نجکاری بند کرو" – Stop the Privatization of Education. The spark ignited as students from Jahanzeb College and Mingora's institutions joined, forming a human chain that blocked roads, their chants rising like a Pashtun folk melody against injustice.The protest targeted the KPK government's plan to privatize 55 colleges, a move critics say will bar poor families from affordable education. Zahid's friend, Amina from a flood-affected village in Kabal, shared her fear: "My family barely rebuilt after the 2025 deluge. Privatization means no future for us." As the crowd swelled to hundreds, they confronted a Pakistan Army convoy, standing firm in non-violent resistance, echoing Malala's spirit of educational advocacy. Simultaneously, parallel protests erupted in Kabal and Engaro Dherai, with students from local colleges blocking key routes, amplifying the valley-wide outcry.Elders and professors from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Professors Association joined in solidarity, boycotting classes and lending their voices to the cause. By evening, as the sun dipped below Mingora's markets, the students dispersed with vows to persist. Zahid, clutching his notebook of demands, whispered, "This is our jirga of the young – for a Swat where knowledge is free." In the valley once silenced by militancy, these echoes of protest from Matta, Kabal, and Engaro Dherai promise a brighter, more equitable dawn.