'Militants bomb schools in Pakistan tribal area'
PAKISTAN - 31 DECEMBER 2009
KHAR, Pakistan Militants blew up two boys' schools in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, officials said Thursday.
A 21-room government high school and five-room primary school side by side in Shago village of Bajaur district were blow up with explosives overnight, local administration official Muhammad Jameel Khan told AFP.
"It is the work of Taliban militants, they have destroyed several schools in the past in reaction to military operations," Khan said, adding that there were no casualties.
Gul Rehman, a Bajaur education officer, said militants had bombed or set ablaze more than 60 schools in a year in the district, which is at the northern tip of the tribal belt and troubled by Taliban attacks.
Bajaur is just west of Dir and Swat districts, where the military launched an offensive in April to crush a two-year Taliban insurgency.
Militants in Swat, which unlike the tribal belt should lie under direct government control, destroyed nearly 200 schools during their bloody campaign to enforce sharia law.
Pakistani security forces launched a huge operation against Islamist militants in Bajaur in August 2008. In February, they claimed the area had been cleared but unrest has rumbled on.
Source: AFP
PAKISTAN - 31 DECEMBER 2009
KHAR, Pakistan Militants blew up two boys' schools in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, officials said Thursday.
A 21-room government high school and five-room primary school side by side in Shago village of Bajaur district were blow up with explosives overnight, local administration official Muhammad Jameel Khan told AFP.
"It is the work of Taliban militants, they have destroyed several schools in the past in reaction to military operations," Khan said, adding that there were no casualties.
Gul Rehman, a Bajaur education officer, said militants had bombed or set ablaze more than 60 schools in a year in the district, which is at the northern tip of the tribal belt and troubled by Taliban attacks.
Bajaur is just west of Dir and Swat districts, where the military launched an offensive in April to crush a two-year Taliban insurgency.
Militants in Swat, which unlike the tribal belt should lie under direct government control, destroyed nearly 200 schools during their bloody campaign to enforce sharia law.
Pakistani security forces launched a huge operation against Islamist militants in Bajaur in August 2008. In February, they claimed the area had been cleared but unrest has rumbled on.
Source: AFP
