Stadium, school blown up in Pakistan

PAKISTAN: Unknown assailants have blown up a stadium and a school in northwestern Pakistan, where Government troops are fighting militants in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.Suspected Taliban-linked militants destroyed a stadium on Saturday by detonating explosives in the Bara area of restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tribal region, Press Trust of India news agency reported.

The powerful explosion also flattened a school close to the stadium. There were no reported casualties, since the stadium and school were empty at the time, local officials said.Taliban militants have banned female education in the northwestern Pakistani valley of Swat, depriving more than 40,000 girls of schooling. The number of girls enrolled in school has dropped dramatically in the region due to the ongoing violence.

In the last several years, Taliban have destroyed hundreds of schools, especially in the areas of Swat Valley and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, previously known as the North-West Frontier Province, as part of their activities.The militants have destroyed more than 200 schools in the Swat Valley alone during a violent two-year campaign by Tehrik-e Taliban’s Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah.

Sunday, Press TV