Daily Times

Unknown attackers set fire to solved exam papers kept at a school in North Waziristan early on Tuesday, said police officials.

Around 10 to 15 unidentified individuals scaled the school’s wall, took the watchmen hostage and used incendiary material to set fire to the examination papers. The solved papers were collected from 23 Bannu Education Board examination centres. Police report that the fire was caused by the use of incendiary materials. After setting fire to the storeroom, the perpetrators fled the scene unhindered. However, police officials said that matriculation question papers, also kept nearby, were moved to safety following the incident.

Earlier in December, unidentified miscreants set ablaze school furniture valued at millions of rupees in a girls’ school located in the Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Police told the media that armed men discreetly entered the Government Higher Secondary School Mambati in Miryan Tehsil of Bannu, where they not only ignited the furniture and other equipment but also made off with solar panels and a pressure pump before making a successful escape.

An official from the local police station described the severity of the incident, stating, “Armed men entered the school and set ablaze the science room in the girls’ higher secondary school, reducing furniture and laboratory equipment worth millions of rupees to ashes.” Additionally, the assailants left threatening sentences inscribed on the school’s main gate, claiming affiliation with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and warning the school’s owner to shut it down, or face complete destruction in the future. The menacing slogans induced widespread panic among the students and their parents, as the school caters to 350 girls and is considered the largest education facility of its kind in the entire locality.