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Taliban torch boys' school in Lower Dir
 [Dawn] Taliban militants set fire to a boys' school Tuesday in northwest Pakistan nearly a year after the military launched a major assault to evict militants from the area, police said.The arson attack took place in Maidan town of Lower Dir, where residents took up arms to fight against militants fleeing a military offensive designed to crush Taliban insurgents last year. The villagers saw the flames after waking up for pre-dawn prayers. Nobody was hurt in the incident as the school was closed for the night, police said. The five rooms of the government-run primary school were destroyed. "Militants sprinkled kerosene oil and then set it on fire. Obviously Taliban are involved," Mumtaz Zarin, the district police chief told AFP by telephone. Three US soldiers were killed and two wounded in a bomb blast in Lower Dir in February shortly before an inauguration ceremony at a girls' school that had been renovated with US humanitarian assistance. Militants opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years. Pakistan last week expanded its military campaign against Taliban militants, pressing an assault to eradicate them from the tribal district of Orakzai, following operations in South Waziristan, Lower Dir, Swat and Buner. Posted by: Fred 2010-03-31 |
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