Militants blow up school in Peshawar

Taliban militants blew up a government-run primary school for boys within the precincts of Urmur police station early on Tuesday, police said.

An official of Urmur Police Station said that militants had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) in the school’s building in the Katako Pul area. The explosion damaged the school’s building and boundary walls.

The Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) said that it was a time device and around three kilogrammes of explosives were used in the attack. A BDU member said that it appeared to be a locally-manufactured device, similar to those used in other attacks in the provincial capital.

Police have registered a case and are investigating it but no arrests have been made so far.

Separately, police claimed to have recovered an IED weighing around seven kilogrammes from the possession of suspected militants from Pishtkhara police station limits.

Pishtakhara police identified the suspect as Jamaluddin, a resident of Swat district, who had concealed the device in a pressure cooker and carried it on his shoulders as he headed to Peshawar from Bara. The suspect was arrested near Tajabad, and detonators, batteries and other devices were also recovered from his possession.

SP Cantonment Tauseef Haider said that the IED was made locally and the accused seemed to be a member of a gang. Haider said that the BDU officials had defused it and interrogators were trying to get further information about his intentions.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2010.