Pakistani forces bomb religious school: spokesman

Pakistan security forces bombed a religious seminary, which was being used to train militants, in the country's northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan in a pre-dawn attack on Monday, the military said.

"There were casualties as between 70 to 80 people were present at the madrasah when the security forces conducted operation at 5 a.m.," army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said.

However, he did not give any details about the number of casualties.

A private TV channel "Aaj" (today) put the figures at 30. There was no official confirmation of the figures.

Sultan said that the religious school located in north of Khar, the headquarters of Bajur tribal agency, was being used for "wrong activities."

"Gunship helicopters were used and most of the targets were eliminated," the spokesman said.

"The attack was launched after confirmed information was received that the inmates were involved in terrorist training," Sultan said. He added that the seminary was being observed for a few days.

"The operation was successful," he said.

It is the second major attack on Bajur in less than a year.

A private TV channel said that the targeted madrasah was owned by a local leader of a banned group "Tanzeem Nifaz-e-Shariat-e- Muhammadi (TSNM)."

In January the United States launched a missile strike on a village in the Bajur area in an effort to kill al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The strike killed 18 people but Pakistani officials said that al-Zawahiri was not among the dead.

The attack occurred two days after a huge anti-U.S. demonstration in Bajur, bordering Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province.

The demonstrators chanted slogans in favor of Osama bin Laden and Taliban's Mullah Muhammad Omar.

Source: Xinhua