LANDIKOTAL:December 25: The number of destroyed schools in Khyber Agency reached 63 after militants blew up another government-run school in Sultankhel area in Landikotal subdivision early Saturday.

Official and tribal sources said that explosive devices planted in the Government Primary School at Noor Khan Killay exploded at about 1:45am during the night. Two classrooms, a veranda and the front portion of the boundary wall were destroyed by the blast. However, there was no casualty as nobody was around at the time of the explosion.

Tribesmen in Noor Khan Killay also exchanged fire with the militants after the blast, a source in the Khassadar force said. The blast was so intense that it smashed windowpanes of the nearby houses, shook the Sultankhel region and terrified those asleep, particularly the children.

The security forces and local administration officials later visited the site of the blast and arrested the watchman, Qadeer Khan, as part of the investigation into the incident, official sources said.

Meanwhile, the Frontier Corps (FC) bomb disposal squad defused a time-bomb planted close to the Bacha Khan Foundation School, officials sources said. “The aim of the militants was to destroy the classrooms and other structures which remained safe in the three blasts carried out four days ago in Landikotal,” a source in the political administration told The News while pleading anonymity.The news.