Pakistani troops blow up madrassa near Afghan border

PAKISTAN: Pakistani troops using explosives destroyed an Islamic school suspected of being a hideout for militants in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

The Khalifa Madrassa in the restive North Waziristan district was seized by troops and blown up, becoming the third religious seminary to be demolished in the area in the past fortnight.

The action followed fierce clashes between Pakistani paramilitary soldiers and Taliban-supporing tribesmen that have left around 170 militants and five troops dead.

"The Khalifa Madrassa was destroyed by security forces today as part of a campaign to deprive militants of any hideout," a local official told AFP in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.

The school was unoccupied at the time, officials said.

The madrassa was set up by Khalifa, an Islamic cleric from Afghanistan who died several years ago but who was an associate of former Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, local officials said.

Haqqani is now on a US list of most wanted militants.

Last week troops and helicopter gunships destroyed seminaries run by two local clerics, Sadiq Noor and Abdul Khaleq, who were wanted for leading the unrest against the army's operations in the tribal region.

On Monday Pakistani authorities ordered thousands of Afghans living in the tribal areas to go back to their native country.

Meanwhile A bomb exploded in a grocery shop Wednesday in Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan province, injuring 13 people, police said.

The explosion hit the main market in the provincial capital Quetta and most of the injured were in a bus which was passing by, city police chief Mujeeb-ur Rehman told AFP.Twelve of the injured were released after receiving first aid in hospital but the bus driver was still undergoing treatment, he added.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Rehman said.

However previous attacks in Baluchistan have been blamed on tribal militants who want greater political rights and a bigger share of the region's ample natural resources.

A landmine blast killed 28 people travelling to a wedding in Baluchistan on Friday. -Miranshah, Quetta, Thursday, AFP.