School blown up, police escape attack | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

School blown up, police escape attack

By Ali Hazrat Bacha

PESHAWAR: Suspected Taliban blew up another girls school in Matani in the suburbs of Peshawar early Friday morning.

Militants also hurled a grenade at a police post on the Dalazak Road, but the personnel deployed there escaped unhurt.Ezat Khan, watchman of the Government Girls Community Primary School, Matani-II, told Dawn that three masked men who came in a Land Cruiser knocked at the school gate and made him hostage at gunpoint.

“They took me to a corner of the six-room building and forced me to sit silent. They made holes in the walls of the school with steel equipment for planting the explosives,” he said.

He said the militants had entered the building at 11pm and came out at 1:30am after planting four explosives inside the rooms. He said they detonated the explosives with a remote control, destroying five rooms and damaging the sixth room, which was used as office.

The watchman said his house was located closed to the school and his family members got panicked after the incident.

He said it was the only school in the area where about 300 students were enrolled. He said the school was located at a short distance from the local police station.

Qadir Khan, an elder of the New Matani village, quoting residents, said suspected armed men ridding cars were seen roaming in the area around the Matani police station for many days, especially late in the evening.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/28/2009