A bomb attack on a girls’ school in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday killed a policeman, wounded eight others and destroyed a wall, police said.
The remote-controlled bomb was planted at the outer wall of the government-run middle school in the outskirts of Mardan in the troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. The bomb exploded after police arrived to investigate complaints about a suspicious plastic bag outside the school, which was closed at the time. “One policeman was killed and eight other people including five civilians were wounded,” Zeshan Haider, Mardan police chief, told AFP by telephone.
Three policemen were also wounded but no pupils were hurt. Haider said the target was the school. “The outer wall of the school was also destroyed,” he added. The seven injured were rushed to District Headquarters Hospital, Mardan while one critically injured was shifted to Peshawar. The explosion was so loud that it was heard in the entire city. Early on Tuesday, Taliban militants killed two anti-Taliban militia men on the outskirts of Peshawar, police said. Dilawar Khan, head of the anti-Taliban militia, said that Taliban killed his men and dumped their bodies in Matni, one of the north-western areas where villagers have raised militias to fight the militants.
