Girls school blown up in Waziristan

MIRANSHAH: Suspected militants destroyed a portion of a government-run girls’ school in a village of Mir Ali tehsil in North Waziristan tribal district, local police said on Monday.

They said that militants had planted explosives in the Government Girls Middle School in Zairki village and triggered a blast with a remote-controlled device late Sunday night

As a result, four out of seven rooms of the school building collapsed and a nearby house was severely damaged. There was, however, no casualty. Soon after the explosion, the police rushed to the spot and started an investigation.

No militant group or individual claimed responsibility for the subversive act in the volatile tribal district. The bombing of schools has put a question mark over the government’s claims that the erstwhile Fata, particularly the North Waziristan tribal district, has been cleared of militants. Incidents of targeted killings and bomb blasts are reported frequently from the area. Over 1,600 schools have been destroyed in the tribal belt during the last one decade.