2 November 2009 / REUTERS, ISLAMABAD
Security forces battling pockets of resistance in a mountainous Taliban stronghold killed at least seven militants on Sunday and injured several more, officials said, as militants kidnapped and killed a prominent pro-government activist in another tribal area where the government claims to have near-total control.
Militants also blew up a girls’ school in the Khyber tribal region, the latest in the Taliban’s campaign against modern education that has destroyed hundreds of schools across Pakistan, said local official Ghulam Farooq Khan. The school’s guard and three of his relatives were injured in the Sunday attack in the town of Bara, near where seven Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed in a Saturday roadside bombing. The kidnapping took place Saturday night in the town of Khar, the largest in the Bajur tribal region, when a group of about 60 militants stormed the house of Jahangir Khan, said Adalat Khan, a town official.
