Suspected militants bomb a school for girls in northwestern Pakistan, once a Taliban stronghold

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD
Associated Press

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Police say suspected militants blew up a school for girls in a former stronghold of Pakistani Taliban in the country’s volatile northwest, badly damaging the structure but no one was harmed in the overnight attack. The local police chief said the attack happened Wednesday night on the only school for girls in Shawa, a town in the province bordering Afghanistan. He said the attackers used an explosive device to attack the school, where 150 girls are students. The was no immediate claim for the attack. It was condemned by the United Nations Children’s Fund, which called the blast “a heinous crime detrimental to national progress.”