Militants blow up girls school in Pakistan

Suspected Taliban militants have destroyed a state-run girls primary school in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. Local officials told (Press TV) that the assailants carried out the attack in the Mando Khail district of Landi Kotal town, located 192 kilometers west of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, in the early hours of Saturday by detonating explosives. There were no reports of casualties since the school was empty at the time of the blast, local officials said. Law enforcement agents cordoned off the area after the blast and launched an investigation. No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. However, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants are the main suspects in the incident. The TTP has banned female education in northwestern Pakistan in a move that has affected thousands of girls there and caused the number of enrolments to drop dramatically. The group warns parents against sending their daughters to schools, describing education as 'unnecessary' and 'harmful' for girls. Over the past several years, TTP militants have destroyed hundreds of schools, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.