School attacked: 13 school girls injured in Bannu explosion

Bomb was planted outside a nearby shop; three men also wounded.

BANNU:

At least 13 female students and three men were injured in a bomb blast outside a girls’ primary school in Bannu city on Thursday.

The explosion took place at 12:40 pm, right at the end of the school day at Girls Primary School No. 1. Many students were leaving the school and were crossing the road when the bomb planted outside a shop nearby exploded. The school is located in a busy market and trading area of the city. The loud explosion caused panic in the area and a stampede ensued.

Bomb Disposal Squad chief Wasal Khan said that the bomb was detonated through a remote-controlled device. The shop was almost completely destroyed.

Injured students were taken to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital where they declared an emergency. The girl students injured were all under the age of 10. The shopkeeper, Zahid Rasool, and two other men were also wounded.

“Luckily, no one was critically injured,” said Khan. Many of the students were discharged after being administered first aid.

Around two kilogrammes of high-intensity explosives were used to make the bomb. The police cordoned off the area and all the shops were shut down. A case has been filed against unknown militants, he said.

‘Militant’ killed, another held

In separate cases, a suspected militant was killed and his alleged accomplice arrested while planting a bomb outside a house in Kotla Mulagan area of Bannu late Wednesday night.

A Saddar police official explained that he received a complaint from the villagers that six militants were trying to set a bomb outside the house of a police official. The villagers, who were on night watch, opened fire at them in which one suspect was killed, while another was injured. The injured ‘militant’ was arrested by security forces, while the remaining four men escaped.

The police official said that the militants were trying to plant bombs outside those officers who had been receiving threats.

The body was moved to the District Headquarters Hospital where a fake student card was found from the suspect’s pocket.

A search operation is under way to find those who escaped, according to the police.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2013.