Targeting infrastructure: Blasts destroy three primary schools, BHU in Mohmand Agency

Police recover several explosive devices from different areas of Charsadda.

SHABQADAR:

Three government primary schools and a basic health unit (BHU) were targeted in separate blasts early Thursday morning on the border area of Mohmand Agency and Charsadda.

Two schools, one each for boys and girls, were destroyed in Aman Tabar along with a BHU in Aqrab Dag area of the agency whereas a newly-constructed girls school was blown up in Masho Khwar area of Charsadda.

An official of Sro Kalay police station, Kausar Khan, told The Express Tribune that two rooms of the newly-constructed school were damaged when an improvised explosive device was set off at about 1 am. This was followed by a similar blast at the BHU.

An official of the Mohmand Agency’s political administration, Pasham Gul, said the government primary schools for boys and girls in Darwazgai area of Aman Tabar were also destroyed by unidentified militants early morning after which authorities launched a search operation in the area.

Meanwhile, the bomb disposal unit defused a five-kilogramme gas cylinder rigged with explosives that was hurled at the house of a retired paramilitary official, Musharraf  Khan, in Qila Shah Baig area of the agency. The incident occurred in the jurisdiction of the Sro Kalay police station.

In a similar incident, Shabqadar police recovered five kilogrammes of explosives and three handmade bombs and wireless handsets from Noor Wahid’s house during a raid in Ghani Qilla area of Charsadda.

No arrests were made in any of the incidents.

Situated in the border  area of Mohmand Agency, Charsadda and Peshawar, Sro Kalay was a hotbed of militant activities till it was cleared by security forces in a recent military operation.

With these latest attacks, the number of government schools destroyed in Mohmand Agency has reached 123. The government is yet to completely rebuild  majority of them.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2014.