Two children were killed, and eight others sustained injuries when an explosion ripped through a madrassah in the Isori village of North Waziristan’s Mir Ali area, security sources said on Thursday.
According to sources, the incident occurred when children “inadvertently triggered explosive material left behind by khawarij militants”, who had planted improvised devices to obstruct the movement of security forces.
The security sources said that 114 square kilometres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had previously been identified as “contaminated” with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) anad mines. The Pakistan Army has so far cleared 82 square kilometres, they added.
The sources further said demining work across the remaining areas of the province was “underway at an accelerated pace.”
Separately, an attack on a school in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali subdivision earlier this week has jeopardised the future of more than 600 school-going children, it emerged on Thursday.
On Monday night, unidentified militants blew up a government primary school in the Khushali area of Ayaz Kot. Unknown attackers had planted explosives in the school and detonated them late on Monday night.
The powerful blast, which was heard miles away, destroyed a significant portion of the school building.
Education department officials confirmed that more than 600 students were enrolled in the institution, which served as the only functional primary school in the area.
Local elders and parents expressed deep concern, calling attacks on educational institutions “a direct assault on the future of children”.