2 injured in fresh Pakistani missile strike

Districts of Kunar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ASADABAD (PAN): Two more people were injured after missiles fired by Pakistani forces hit southern Kunar province of Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.

More than 50 missiles landed in Dangam district of the province, injuring two people and damaging properties, the governor’s spokesman Washifullah Wasifi told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The missiles are fired by Pakistani forces on the bordering areas of the district, he said.

Almost 130 missiles were aimed at the area from outside the Durand line that created security chaos for people and many forced to migrate from the area, said Nisar Ahmad, a local resident.

He asked the government to stop the missile strikes from the neighbouring country and help the displaced people.

On Tuesday a child was killed after Pakistani troops fired missiles landed in the area. 

from Pajhwok
by Khan Wali Salarzai on Jun 27, 2012 - 11:08

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Militants blow up a school in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Some unidentified militants blew up a boys' school in Khyber tribal region of Pakistan, local media reported on Saturday.

According to a report by The News, militants blew up the school on late Friday night by using explosive materials in Bacha Mina area of Kyhber Agency, one of the seven volatile tribal agencies at Pak-Afghan border.

All the three rooms and a veranda of the school were destroyed by the blast while the boundary wall suffered minor damage.

It was the only government school built at the Torkham border in the 1980s after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At the school, 95 percent children were from the Afghan refugee families residing in the border town.

This is not the first time when militants attacked an educational institution in the area.

According to official statistics, over 500 schools were destroyed by militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administrated Tribal Area of Pakistan since the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan, leaving tens of thousands of children without access to education.

In areas like northwest Pakistan, formal western style education is not an easy task partly due to the hold of orthodox religious scholars.

The literacy rate of northwest Pakistan (excluding Peshawar) is 22 percent, which is well below the nationwide rate of 56 percent. Only 35.8 percent of men and 7.5 percent of women in this area receive education, compared to a nationwide 44 percent of women.

Critics believe that after the attempts of sabotaging education system by the militants, the responsible authorities are not making any notable efforts to rebuild the education structure in the effected places.

However, the authorities are of the view that they don't have enough budget allocation for the uplift of education system in the effected areas as their immediate task is to maintain law and order situation and protect the lives of people in the troubled areas.

The number of destroyed schools rose to 64 in Khyber Agency on Friday when another government-run school was blown up by suspected militants.

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