GHALANAI/KOHAT, Nov 10: Militants blew up a government-run school in Haleemzai tehsil of Mohmand tribal region on Thursday, official sources said.

They said that unidentified militants planted improvised explosives device at a girls' primary school in Malik Nader Khwajawas Kor at the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

The device went off with a bang, destroying two rooms of the school completely and damaging another, they added. About 350 girl students will be deprived of getting education if alternative arrangements are not made for them.

More than 83 schools have been destroyed in Mohmand Agency after spillover of militancy into the region, affecting over 20,000 students.

Schools were reopened recently in Biazai tehsil after three years while in tehsil Safi educational institutions were reopened after four years, said Agency Education Officer Said Mohammad Khan. He said that students of the destroyed schools had no other option but to attend classes in tents, hujras and mosques.

The Levies and Khasadar personnel conducted search operation in the village after the incident and demolished houses of two suspects identified as Pir Zada and Tariq.

Scores of locals including the landowner were arrested under the collective territorial responsibility clause of FCR after the blast.

Meanwhile, the chief of peace committee of Kohat division has said that Taliban can get control of the region if government continues to ignore needs and requirements of the volunteers.

Salamat Khan Orakzai, the chief of anti-Taliban lashkar raised by government in 2009 for Orakzai Agency, Hangu and Kohat, said that they closed their training centre in Hangu owing to financial constraints.

He said that they fought against terrorists alongside army and seized weapons worth millions of rupees from them. “We have also arrested militants and handed them over to security forces,” he added.

Talking to journalists, Mr Orakzai said that so far their 13 volunteers had been killed and five maimed but none of them had been compensated.

He said that police were harassing their volunteers that could lead to dismantling of the lashkar and Kohat division could fall into the hands of militants.