KOHAT: A bomb explosion damaged a girls’ school in the Noor Ali Kalay area in the Darra Adamkhel late on Monday. Extremists had earlier sent letters to several middle and high schools, threatening the schools’ managements to expel girls after they passed class IV, otherwise they would destroy the building and kill the principal. An official said on Tuesday that the blast, sixth in a row against girls’ schools and video markets during the past four months, was the handiwork of the local Taliban. The blast, which occurred at 12:45am, completely destroyed three rooms in the school building.

Haji Mumtaz Khan, a relative of the school owner, said that people were terrified and traders had closed down CD shops after two markets were attacked by the local Taliban. He feared that if the government did not take any action against the group involved in terrorists attacks, all middle and secondary level girls’ schools in the area would be forced to close down. The district coordination officer, Kohat, who also holds the charge of assistant political agent of the Kohat Frontier Region, and assistant administrator Riaz Khan discussed the situation after visiting the school.

They decided to summon a jirga of the Zarghun Khel tribe on whose land the blast had occurred and ask them to hand over the culprits to them. During the past few months, authorities had arrested 15 tribesmen under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulations after blasts in two girls’ schools and shopping markets. But the actual perpetrators still remained unidentified. Officials said that they still had no clue about the identity of the local Taliban. The officials said: “We can infer that by targeting only girls’ schools and CD shops while taking no action against people involved in drugs and illegal arms trade, it seemed that they were only 15 to 20 young tribesmen impressed by the Taliban.”
Source: Dawn
Date:12/27/2006