ISLAMABAD: Taleban militants yesterday blew up five schools in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern Swat Valley, police said, one day after a government minister promised to keep them open.
The fresh attacks, one after another, follow a threat last month by a local Taleban commander to kill any girls attending classes after Jan. 15 and blow up schools where they are enrolled.
“Four boys’ schools and one girls’ school were blown up by militants,” district police official Anwar Khan told AFP from Mingora, a bustling town in the scenic Swat valley, which used to be a popular tourist destination.
“No one was injured in the bombings, but the school buildings were badly damaged,” Khan said. Mingora schools were empty on Monday because of holidays.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Sherry Rahman on Sunday vowed to keep open all girls’ schools in Swat and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
“From March 1, all closed schools in Swat and NWFP will be reopened after the winter break,” Sherry told reporters in Karachi.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the attacks were a direct response to those remarks, although militants appear to be targeting schools indiscriminately to prevent them from reopening, said Dilawar Khan Bangash, the police chief in the troubled valley.
Yesterday’s attacks destroyed three schools for boys and two for girls, Bangash said. An association representing 400 private schools for boys and girls in the valley said last week that all of its schools would remain closed after the winter break because of the threat from militants.
The attack by suspected insurgents also killed one soldier and wounded 14 near the famed Khyber Pass and caused yet another temporary closing of the supply route to Afghanistan, adding urgency to efforts to secure alternative supply lines as about 30,000 more US troops head to Afghanistan this year.
Afghan-based US and NATO forces get up to 75 percent of their supplies via routes from Pakistan. The trucks that carry the fuel, food and other goods face constant threats of violence, while growing militant activity has led to attacks on terminals in the nearby city of Peshawar.
