| NEWS ARCHIVES |
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| Taliban blow up girls' school in Pakistan |
| 23 Dec 2009 |
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The Taliban have blown up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district, where troops are fighting militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Officials said militants detonated explosives overnight at the government-run school in Bazgarah town, about 40 kilometres west of Peshawar.
There were no casualties as the premises was empty at the time.
Militants opposed to co-education and subscribers to sharia law have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years.
The fabled Khyber tribal region is the main land bridge to neighbouring Afghanistan and the principle supply route for NATO troops fighting a Taliban insurgency across the border.
Pakistani troops launched an offensive in Khyber in September in a bid to flush out the Taliban and homegrown militant group Lashkar-e-Islam.
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