DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Suspected militants blew up a school for girls in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s volatile northwest, badly damaging the structure but no one was harmed in the overnight attack, a local police official said Thursday.
He said the attackers used an explosive device to destroy the private Aafia Islamic Girls Model School, where 150 girls studied. Wazir said the school guard was beaten up by the insurgents, who then fled the scene. On Thursday, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, strongly condemned the attack, calling it a “despicable and cowardly act that could jeopardize the future of many young and talented girls.”Pakistan’s military says March attack that killed Chinese engineers was planned in AfghanistanIn a statement, Abdullah Fadil, the UNICEF representative in Pakistan, said the “destruction of a girls’ school in a remote and underserved area is a heinous crime detrimental to national progress.