Bomb attack on Pakistan school kills policeman

A bomb attack on a girls' school in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday killed a policeman, wounded eight others and destroyed a wall, police said.

The remote-controlled bomb was planted at the outer wall of the government-run middle school in the outskirts of Mardan town in troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

The bomb exploded after police arrived to investigate complaints about a suspicious plastic bag outside the school, which was closed at the time.

"One policeman was killed and eight other people including five civilians were wounded," Zeshan Haider, Mardan police chief, told AFP by telephone.

Three policemen were also wounded but no pupils were hurt.

Haider said the target was the school.

"The outer wall of the school was also destroyed," he added.

Islamist militants oppose co-education and have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years.

Early Tuesday, Taliban militants killed two anti-Taliban militia men on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police said.

Dilawar Khan, head of the anti-Taliban militia, said that Taliban killed his men and dumped their bodies in Matni, one of the northwestern areas where villagers have raised militias to fight the Islamist militants.

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