(AFP)

KHAR, Pakistan — Militants blew up two boys’ schools and a basic health unit in the lawless tribal region on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, but there were no reports of casualties, officials said Saturday.

“A 14-room government high school and five-room primary school in Malangi village of Bajaur district were blown up with explosives late on Friday,” local administration official Faramosh Khan told AFP.

He said that a nearby basic health unit, providing medical care to local tribesmen, was also destroyed.

“The primary school building was demolished completely while seven to eight rooms of the high school were destroyed by the explosive material planted in the building by militants,” Khan said.

Local tribal police and intelligence officials also confirmed the incident and said no casualties were reported.

Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after a US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

Bajaur is just west of Dir and Swat districts, where the military launched an offensive in April last year to crush a two-year Taliban insurgency.

Pakistani security forces launched a huge operation against Islamist militants in Bajaur in August 2008. In February 2009, they claimed the area had been cleared but unrest has rumbled on.

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