PESHAWAR/LANDI KOTAL, July 5: Two telephone exchanges and a school were blown up in different sabotage activities in Peshawar district and adjacent Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency on Tuesday.

Also, a checkpost of Khasadar Force was partially damaged in a bomb blast in Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber tribal region.

Sources said that a telephone exchange was blown up in the small hours of Tuesday in Gulshanabad area of Matani on suburbs of provincial metropolis.

“The blast occurred after midnight and destroyed the exchange completely,” said Jehanzeb Khan, a supervisor of the exchange.

He said that the 1,200-line exchange had also been blown in 2008 but about 400 lines were restored in a container on emergency basis. “It is the second time that the exchange was destroyed,” he added.

An official of Matani police station said that security guard of the exchange was taken into custody for investigation.

Qadir Khan, a resident of the area, said that they didn't hear the blast but the exchange was destroyed. He said that it was the only exchange in the area. Its destruction caused problems for telephone subscribers of many urban localities, he added.

An official of Bomb Disposal Unit said that a local made explosive was planted under the container that went off at midnight, destroying the exchange board and its room.

He said that Ghuncha Gul, an operator of the exchange, was killed two days when a stray bullet hit him. He added that the father of the operator had died three days ago and he along with his guests was sitting outside his residence when a stray bullet hit him in the head. He died before he was shifted to Lady Reading Hospital, he said.

A case against unidentified terrorists was registered at Matani police station.

Meanwhile, a school and a telephone exchange were destroyed in Akkakhel area of Bara tehsil. “Unidentified militants planted huge quantity of explosives inside the telephone exchange and primary school for boys in the area,” officials said.

Two huge explosions caused by the explosives at midnight destroyed the telephone exchange and school, they added. Militants had targeted the said exchange last year and taken away most of its equipment.

Meanwhile, militants also took away doors, windows and furniture from a primary school situated in Shalobar, a congested locality in Bara.

In Landi Kotal, a bomb explosion caused damage to the outer wall of a recently established checkpost at Charwazai. The blast took place at around 10am on Tuesday but the khasadars posted at the post escaped unhurt.

Security forces also defused an explosive device planted outside a private school in Landi Kotal on Tuesday morning. Educational institutions in the area are closed these days for summer vacations.

Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen kidnapped two tribesmen from Alan Gudar area in Bara and shifted them to some undisclosed location.