Girls school attacked in troubled NW Pakistan

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Suspected Islamist militants blew up a girls school close to the main city in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, police said. The school was empty at the time of the blast and no one was injured.

A timed explosive device is believed to have caused the explosion that badly damaged the school on the outskirts of Peshawar, police officer Hamdullah Khan said.

Al-Qaida and Taliban militants hold sway across much of northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan and have often targeted girls schools in both countries because they believe that women should not be educated.

The military has launched large offensives across parts of the region in an attempt to rein the militants in, but they remain strong in much of the mountainous, lawless zone.



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