Dec 16, 2025
By Kaleem Ullah
LAHORE
In a second attack on an educational institution within a week, unidentified militants have blown up a government girls’ primary school in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan.
Police said the incident occurred overnight in Epi village, where assailants planted explosive material inside the school building before detonating it. The blast completely razed the structure. Authorities confirmed that no casualties were reported as the school was closed at the time of the explosion.
According to government officials, around 250 girls were enrolled at the school, which was the only government-run educational facility for girls in the surrounding area. Students from nearby localities also attended classes at the institution.
Police said the explosion caused extensive damage to government property and created fear among residents. Law enforcement personnel reached the site soon after the blast, collected evidence, and launched an investigation against unknown attackers.
The attack comes just days after a similar incident in the district. On Monday, unidentified militants blew up a government primary school in the Khushali area of Ayaz Kot. Officials said explosives had been planted inside the building and detonated around midnight, resulting in severe damage. The blast was reportedly heard several miles away.
The school attacks have sparked widespread condemnation from rights activists and former legislators. Ziauddin Yousafzai, the father of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and a prominent education activist, called on the government and security agencies to protect educational institutions at all costs.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he said, “This is deeply alarming. In Tehsil Mir Ali of North Waziristan, two schools—the Ayaz Kot Boys Primary School and the Laal Salam Kot Girls Primary School—have been blown up within the last four days by Taliban militants. The systematic destruction of educational institutions must stop immediately. The government and security agencies must act without delay to ensure special protection for schools, without disrupting learning activities. Education must never be a target.”
Meanwhile, Jamal Dawar, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial information secretary of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) from North Waziristan, said that following the terror of targeted killings and drone surveillance, a new wave of what he described as “engineered warfare” has emerged in the region. Under this pattern, entire families are punished in an FCR-style approach, where the house of a whole family is demolished for the alleged crime of a single individual. He added that, in retaliation, functional government schools in the area are also being destroyed.
He stressed the urgent need to understand what he termed the deception embedded in the current conflict, where loss of life, profiling, economic devastation, and worsening law and order—under the pretext of security—have become routine, while people are simultaneously deprived of development projects. These factors, he warned, point toward a dark and frightening future that demands serious and immediate reassessment.
The incident mirrors earlier attacks in the district. In May last year, a private girls’ school in Tehsil Shewa, Aafia Islamic School, was destroyed by unidentified militants. At the time, UNICEF strongly condemned the attack, calling it a hateful and cowardly act that threatened the future of many talented girls.
Following UNICEF’s condemnation, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also denounced the attack at the time and ordered that the damaged portion of the school be rebuilt at government expense. However, the school’s owner, Bahadur Khan, later said he never received the promised funds. He added that although funds were reportedly allocated to a local government contractor, substandard construction materials were used during the renovation process, and he was not allowed to supervise the work or implement better-quality designs. Ultimately, due to persistent security concerns and the lack of adequate financial support, he was forced to permanently shut down the only private girls’ school in the area.