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Pakistan: Girls school blown up in Bajaur Agency

Dawn Report

Tuesday, 13 Jul, 2010

KHAR: Another girls school was blown up in the Sheikh Baba area while a food distribution centre set up by the World Food Programme (WFP) was closed after a missile landed near it here on Monday.

Locals and political officials said explosives planted by militants in the Government Girls' Primary School in Sheikh Baba, four kilometres from Khar, went off early Monday morning, destroying the building. The explosion was so powerful that it was heard far and wide.

Soon after the incident the political administration launched a crackdown on local people and arrested several tribesmen under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation. So far, 91 schools have been blown up by militants in the restive Bajaur tribal region.

Meanwhile, two missiles were fired from an unknown location on Monday, one of them landing near the WFP food distribution centre.

Locals said a large number of IDPs were present at the food centre but they escaped unhurt as the missile landed a few yards away.

The administration closed the centre after the incident. The second missile hit a government school in the Dag Qilla area, damaging a portion of the building.

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