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Girlsâ€™ school blown up in NW Pakistan

22 April 2012 03:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Militants have blown up a state-run girlsâ€™ primary school in Pakistanâ€™s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Local officials told Press TV on Saturday that the assailants carried out the bomb attack on Friday in the Gundai area of Jamrud Tehsil in the northwestern province, situated approximately 390 kilometers (241 miles) south of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

There were no reports of casualties as the school was empty at the time of the blast, local officials said.

Law enforcement agents cordoned off the area after the incident and launched an investigation. No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

However, militants of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are the prime suspects.

The attack occurred on the same day that bombers razed a state-run school building in the Sikandar Khel area of Jamrud Tehsil.

The TTP has banned female education in northwestern Pakistan, which has affected thousands of girls in the area and caused the number of enrolments to drop dramatically.

The group warns parents against sending their daughters to school, describing education as ’unnecessary’ or ’harmful’ for girls.

Over the past several years, TTP militants have destroyed hundreds of schools, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which was formerly known as North-West Frontier Province.