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Pakistan closes all schools, colleges fearing attacks

Stiff resistance slows military advance, blast kills 3 in militant hotbed

AFP, Peshawar/ Islamabad
Pakistan kept millions of pupils at home yesterday as it shut all schools and colleges after a suicide attack at a university, as the army became bogged down in an assault against theTaliban.
As ground troops pressed their offensive in a remote tribal region, police in cities went on heightened alert against yet more attacks from al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists in which 185 people have died sofarthismonth.
Pakistan shut schools and colleges nationwide Wednesday a day after a suicide attack on a prestigious Islamic university as ground troops pressed home an anti-Tailban offensive.
Pakistan went on heightened alert against attacks from al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists after a month of carnage that has left around 185 people dead in the nuclear-armed Muslim power bordering Afghanistan.
Millions of students faced disruption as the federal and provincial governments, along with private school associations and the military, decided to close schools, colleges and universities.
Some schools shut earlier this week
and the rest of the country followed suit after two suicide bombers Tuesday blew themselves up at Islamabad's International Islamic University, killing five people.
"There are around 414 schools, colleges and universities run by the federal government. All have been closed because of security' threats received in recent days," education ministry spokesman Atiqur Rehman told AFP
"Similar orders have been issued by the four provincial governments. We will assess the situation and hopefully they will reopen on Monday," he added.
Addressing his cabinet. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said "these cowardly acts of terrorists will not go un-punished" and the government was "even more resolute in our commitment to eradicate the evil of militancy".
Mountains, mines and fierce clashes have slowed Pakistan's advance in South Waziristan, where an assault has killed 113 militants but could take longer than expected, officials said Wednesday.
Pakistan faces its toughest military test against the militants to date in waging its ground assault on what is part of the lawless tribal belt where al-Qaeda and Taliban networks are all eg -edlyplottingattackson theWest.
There have been heavy clashes on the heights overlooking Kotkai, the hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and Qari Hussein, a reputed suicide bomb trainer, but troops have yet to storm the village.
The army said 15 militants were killed since its last updated toll, bringing the overall number to 113. Three soldiers also died, including an officer killed during an armed exchange around the Taliban bastion ofKotkai.
Death tolls are impossible to confirm independently with the area closed and all communication lines down.
Meanwhile an explosion at the home of a tribesman in Pakistan's militant-infested tribal belt killed three people on Wednesday, security officials said.
There was an explosion in the house of Gharib Nawaz and three people died. Initially it was presumed to have been a US drone attack but it's not a drone. It was an explosion in the house," one senior security’official said.
The incident happened in the mountains of Spalga about 10 kilometres (six miles) southeast of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, one of seven districts in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.
It was not immediately clear whether the tribesman. Nawaz, was affiliated with Taliban or al-Qaeda networks active in the area.