Arson attacks on Pakistan schools

Militants set fire to two elementary schools in Pakistan's Kurram tribal district on Tuesday, an area rife with violence between Sunni and Shiite groups. The authorities have extended the nationwide winter break from school amid threats of further attacks, and many universities and colleges remain shut down.

The pre-dawn arson attacks destroyed school records and damaged the buildings themselves. Amjad Ali Khan, the district's top official, told AFP news agency that the arsonists had doused school furniture in petrol before setting it ablaze. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, and Khan declined to name a specific suspect, saying simply that "militants" were to blame.

The Taliban, as well as other insurgent groups, are violently opposed to girls' schooling and secular education, and have often targeted schools with bombs and fires in northwest Pakistan.

No one was hurt in this most recent outbreak of violence, which follows the massacre of over 130 children in an army school in Peshawar two weeks ago. The unprecedented massacre, the second deadliest in the nation's history, was carried out by the Pakistani Taliban in retaliation for the military offensive in the country's restive tribal region that has been ongoing since June and has killed at least 1,200 according to army figures.

The massacre prompted the Pakistani government to reinstate the death penalty in cases of terrorism, and to move forward with 500 executions of convicted extremists.

es/nm (AFP, dpa)