Islamabad - AFP
Suspected Taleban militants bombed four boys’ schools in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt on Thursday, officials said, in the latest attack on government educational institutions. No one was injured in the pre-dawn blasts in Mohmand tribal district, where officials said Taleban attacks have now destroyed more than 100 schools. ‘Militants from TTM (Tehreek-e-Taleban Mohmand) blew up the buildings of four schools at around 2:30 am (2130 GMT),’ an intelligence official in Mohmand told AFP. Liaqat Ali, a government official, confirmed the incident and told AFP that militants planted locally made explosives to dynamite the school buildings. ‘All the four schools were completely destroyed, the number of schools destroyed in Mohmand is now more than 100,’ Ali said. Militants opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years. A Taleban gunman shot and wounded schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai for campaigning for girls’ education in Pakistan’s Swat Valley on October 9, in an attack that shocked the world.