Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s military has taken a group of international journalists and diplomats on a tour of the site of the Indian air attacks in the northern town of Jaba, including the first-ever visit allowed to a school affiliated with the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) armed group that India said it had been targeting in the attack.

The group of journalists – mostly flown in from the Indian capital, New Delhi – and diplomats based in Islamabad was flown to Jaba, about 100km north of the capital Islamabad, by helicopter on Wednesday, a military statement said.

The group was shown the sites where bombs from a February 26 air attack by the Indian Air Force hit on a mostly uninhabited mountainside in the remote northern area, a military action that heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours and saw Pakistan launch retaliatory attacks a day later.

India claims it hit a JeM training camp in the area, killing “a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis”, according to a foreign ministry statement released shortly after the attacks.

Pakistan disputed the claim, saying four Indian bombs hit a forest, lightly wounding a farmer and damaging his home and fields.

An Al Jazeera visit to the site of the air raids a day after the attack found four distinct bomb craters on a forested mountainside, with little evidence of other damage. Interviews with residents, witnesses, local officials and medical personnel offered no evidence of mass casualties, as the Indian government had claimed.

Residents and witnesses told Al Jazeera at the time that there was a religious school close to the targeted site, but that it was undamaged in the attack.

A road sign for the school said that it was led by JeM Chief Masood Azhar and administered by Muhammad Yousaf Azhar, the JeM chief’s brother-in-law. The sign has since been removed, and journalists on Wednesday’s military tour said it was no longer present.

In the first-ever visit to the site of the school, journalists and diplomats were shown a large room where children were rocking back and forth as they read the Quran, and a set of buildings that appeared to be undamaged, journalists who were on the trip told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

“It was difficult to be conclusive,” said one reporter, pointing out how military personnel monitored the group throughout the delegation’s visit and sometimes intervened during interviews with teachers and students.

“The buildings did not look tampered with – the roofs didn’t look new, everything there looked pretty old,” the reporter said when asked if there appeared to be any evidence of the buildings having been repaired in the 43 days since the air raids.

A second journalist who was on the tour corroborated that account.

The journalists said there were between 75 and 100 students present at the school, and that most appeared to live in on-site dormitories, which the delegation was denied access to.

Teachers at the school denied any links to JeM, the journalists said.

‘Reliable intelligence’

Tensions remain high between India and Pakistan, as India’s staggered general elections kicked off on Thursday.

Last week, Pakistan’s foreign minister accused India of creating a “war frenzy” and preparing to attack Pakistani territory later this month.

“Pakistan has reliable intelligence that India is hatching a new plan for aggression against Pakistan,” Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters on Sunday. “This can happen in between April 16 and 20.”

India denied the charge, saying the allegation was “irresponsible and preposterous”, according to foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.

Earlier this week, the two countries once again traded barbs when a US magazine reported that a count of Pakistan’s F-16 fighter jet fleet by US inspectors had revealed no missing aircraft, contradicting a claim made by India that it had shot down one of those jets.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since gaining independence in 1947 over the disputed territory of Kashmir, which both countries claim in full but administer separate portions of.

The latest round of hostilities was sparked by a suicide attack in the Indian-administered Kashmir town of Pulwama that killed more than 40 Indian security forces personnel in mid-February. India blamed Pakistan-based JeM and the country’s intelligence services for carrying out the attack, a charge Pakistan has denied.

Founded in 2000, JeM has carried out several high-profile attacks against Indian security forces and government targets, mostly in the disputed Kashmir region.

Following the air attacks, Pakistan has carried out a crackdown against JeM and the Lashkar-e-Taiba armed groups, arresting dozens of leaders – including family members of JeM chief, Azhar – and seizing properties across the country, according to the interior ministry. 

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim

Mbabala, Zambia – Deep inside Bangweulu, the largest lake in Zambia, lies Mbabala, a sandy island home to about 2,000 people. 

From a distance, a dozen fishermen move around the water, slowly rowing their old, wooden boats in search of fish. 

At the island’s shores, children wash utensils and clothes as others prepare to bathe.

It is a sunny Saturday morning and Irene Bwalya emerges from her tall maize plantations engulfing her modest one-bedroom house. She is breastfeeding her new son.

“Go inside and get me the brown mat,” the mother of seven angrily tells one of her daughters, who is sitting outside. “Spread it here and start cleaning the house. It’s getting late.”

In Mbabala, there is a rising number of teenage pregnancies with girls as young as 13 becoming mothers.

Bwalya’s 18-year-old daughter, her first-born girl, was one of them.

The then-14-year-old revealed her pregnancy to her mother in 2014. 

“I was in pain. My daughter started developing pregnancy symptoms but I kept ignoring them since she was still young,” she said. 

“After the symptoms kept on, she confessed about her pregnancy. I thought she was raped at first but she denied and went ahead to show me the man who was responsible.”

According to UNICEF, in Zambia, three in 10 young women aged 13-19 have started bearing children – that is, they have given birth already or are currently pregnant with their first child.

The rate of teenage pregnancies is about 29 percent and, as a result, about 16,000 of adolescent girls are dropping out of school.

Across Mbabala, there is only one primary school. 

Students whose families can afford high school must travel to the mainland: a four-hour boat ride which costs $40.

This is hard, says Bwalya, who has no source of income.

Her daughter did not attend high school and found herself idol most of the time. 

“The only way out to a better life is education. I do not have anything to support my children to further their education in the mainland,” she said.

In Zambia, according to government figures, 54 percent of the Southern Africa nation’s 18 million people live below the poverty line.

In Mbabala, fishing and agriculture are the main sources of income.

Kedrick Kasabwe, a 50-year-old man who lives on the island, said residents are extremely poor.

“Apart from pregnancies, STIs and HIV are very high. Our children are engaging in sexual activities due to poverty and idleness. We only have a primary school and once a 13-year-old is done, they become idle, ending up engaging in sexual activities,” he said.

The father of seven has campaigned for sex education.

“I started by example. I took my 14-year-old daughter to the clinic and [she was given] birth control implants to make sure she doesn’t get pregnant at her young age. We want better lives for our children,” he said.

Together with a group of concerned elders and parents, he organised meetings with young teenagers, providing a space for discussion without judgement.

The message, explained Kasabwe, will not be heard if only one gender is targeted.

“We need to holistically inform our youth that you can abstain from sex. If you cannot abstain, these are the safety procedures to go about it,” he said.

“The problem is that these young boys and girls are sexually active without knowledge of its dangers. Our job is to teach them how to go about it and avoid unnecessary pregnancies and diseases.

“We cannot stop young and idle teenagers from engaging in sexual activities. But, through the talks, we can curb its dangers.”

Other parents have also educated their children about contraceptives.

According to records seen by Al Jazeera at Mabala’s only health clinic, in the last six months, 22 teenagers were given birth control contraceptives. 

The youngest was 13 years old.

Nason Bwalya, the area’s district commissioner, says the government is aware of the numbers.

“In this district, some places like Mbabala have an accessibility challenge.

“As the government, we are planning to put up more health facilities and schools so as to bring services close to the people. Once we do this, poverty levels will go down,” Bwalya told Al Jazeera.

But access to contraceptives will not stop teenagers from having sex, explained Monica Atim, a sexual reproductive health adviser at Voluntary Services Overseas, a UK Charity. 

Education and awareness campaigns are essential, she added. 

“Teenage pregnancies are very dangerous to these young girls. This is because their bodies are not yet fully mature to handle the dangers and risks that come with pregnancy. This leads to complications like over bleeding when giving birth, fistula and, in some cases, death,” she said. 

Bwalya, the mother of seven, is aware of the dangers.

A year after giving birth, her daughter became pregnant again, prompting her to take her other daughters to get contraceptives.

“It was too much. I am struggling to take care of my own seven children. Having grandchildren is a burden at this time,” she said. “I just want my daughters to have a decent life and become mothers when the time is right.”