3 Pakistani schools bombed
2010-04-08 20:09
Islamabad - Militants bombed three girls' schools on the outskirts of the Pakistani city of Peshawar, the latest in a wave of Islamist attacks on educational institutions, a provincial minister said on Thursday.
Nobody was hurt in the pre-dawn attacks in the north-western capital, the gateway to Pakistan's troubled tribal regions, where the military is battling Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.
"Militants damaged a girls' high school, a primary and a middle school, on the outskirts by planting explosive material," provincial education minister Sardar Hussain Babak said.
He blamed the attacks on the Taliban. "The militants, who are on the run in the wake of military offensives against them were targeting schools to create panic," he said.
Senior police official Mohammad Karim Khan also confirmed the attacks and said there were no injuries.
Islamist militants oppose co-education and have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years.
