Taliban blow up boys school in NW Pakistan
PAKISTAN - 13 FEBRUARY 2010
PESHAWAR, Pakistan Taliban militants blew up a boys high school in a tribal district of northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border on Saturday, an official said.
There were no casualties as the school in the village of Qamardin at Safi area of the Mohmand tribal district, 92 kilometres (57 miles) in northwest of Peshawar, was closed.
"The school was almost completely destroyed. Taliban planted explosives at five places and blew up most of the rooms," Maqsood Khan, a senior administrative official in the area told AFP by telephone.
Islamist militants opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years as they wage a fierce insurgency to enforce sharia law.
"This was an act of the Taliban," Khan added. "This is a reaction to the operation we have launched in the area."
Pakistan's military is engaged in offensives against Islamist fighters across much of the northwest including tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, a region branded by Washington the most dangerous place on Earth.
About 30,000 Pakistani troops poured into South Waziristan in mid-October to try and dismantle strongholds of the Taliban leadership, enraging militants who have responded with a surge of bomb blasts and attacks.
Source: AFP
PAKISTAN - 13 FEBRUARY 2010
PESHAWAR, Pakistan Taliban militants blew up a boys high school in a tribal district of northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border on Saturday, an official said.
There were no casualties as the school in the village of Qamardin at Safi area of the Mohmand tribal district, 92 kilometres (57 miles) in northwest of Peshawar, was closed.
"The school was almost completely destroyed. Taliban planted explosives at five places and blew up most of the rooms," Maqsood Khan, a senior administrative official in the area told AFP by telephone.
Islamist militants opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years as they wage a fierce insurgency to enforce sharia law.
"This was an act of the Taliban," Khan added. "This is a reaction to the operation we have launched in the area."
Pakistan's military is engaged in offensives against Islamist fighters across much of the northwest including tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, a region branded by Washington the most dangerous place on Earth.
About 30,000 Pakistani troops poured into South Waziristan in mid-October to try and dismantle strongholds of the Taliban leadership, enraging militants who have responded with a surge of bomb blasts and attacks.
Source: AFP
