QUETTA, Feb 20: Several houses and a school were destroyed on Monday when planes bombed two localities in Dera Bugti tehsil, Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti said here.

“Children enrolled in the school escaped the bombing as they had left the school about an hour before the attack,” said Nawab Bugti, the chief of the Bugti tribe.

He was speaking from an undisclosed location by satellite phone.

According to Nawab Bugti, two jets dropped four bombs on the Mirwar area of Sangsilla. “They made a school their target,” he alleged.

He told newsmen that the bombing had left a 12-foot deep and 14-foot long crater in Mirwar.

He said that those who accused tribal chiefs of not allowing schools in their area were themselves destroying school buildings in the area.

The tribal chief said that fighter jets had also dropped at least six bombs on the Zain mountain range where tents of poor people were located. “The forces are targeting women and children and treating them like terrorists,” he said.

No fatality was reported in the bombing.

He said that heavy fighting was reported in Daman area of Sui tehsil where security forces attacked local people who also retaliated and returned fire. He said that armed tribesmen chased the FC personnel up to the Sui area.

DENIAL: Nawab Bugti, commenting on a statement by the district coordination officer that he allegedly had a dollar account outside Pakistan, said if he did have one he was prepared to hand it over to the DCO. “This is all rubbish and mere propaganda. He said he had no such accounts abroad.