Girls’ school bombed in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, TTP suspected
PTC Web Desk: Unidentified assailants carried out a bomb attack on a government high school in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province early Friday, the local authorities confirmed. The targeted school, located in Akbari village within the Gul Imam police station limits of Tank district, suffered extensive damage as several classrooms were reduced to rubble following the explosion.
Police officials reported that no casualties were immediately confirmed, but the structural destruction has rendered the school building unusable. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing. However, security sources suspect involvement of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) splinter factions, which are known to operate in the area and have a long history of opposing girls' education.
Over the past decade, the province has witnessed a systematic targeting of educational institutions, particularly girls' schools. Local NGOs estimate that more than 450 schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been destroyed in similar attacks since 2010, depriving thousands of children—especially girls—of safe access to education.
In many affected areas, students are forced to attend classes outdoors or in makeshift structures built amid the ruins.
This latest incident revives painful memories of earlier violence, most notably the 2012 attack on education activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived a TTP assassination attempt in Swat and later became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Security has been tightened in sensitive regions of the province to prevent further attacks.
- With inputs from agencies
