Two schools, including one which had recently been rebuilt with international aid, were burned down by suspected Taleban in southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.
In the first incident a primary school in Landai village of Dand district south of Kandahar city was torched in the early hours of Wednesday morning by Taleban fighters and their allies, deputy military commander Hajji Grani told AFP.
"Taleban introduced themselves to the school kids of Landai village by burning their school in the darkness of night," Grani said.
The school watchman was tied up and then the school was burnt down, he said.
The building had recently been rebuilt after it had been destroyed during Afghanistan's more than two decades of conflict, Grani said.
On Wednesday night a second primary school was attacked in Arghandab district, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Kandahar city, a former Taleban stronghold, the administrator of the governor's office Dawood Barak told AFP. "These cowards cannot frighten and scare my brave teachers and school kids," he said.
Kandahar, considered the birthplace of the Islamic fundamentalist Taleban regime, has experienced much unrest in recent weeks with militants storming the compounds of government offices and an aid agency on Monday, killing two humanitarian workers and one soldier.
On Wednesday, a senior Muslim cleric was shot dead as he answered the door to his Kandahar home after he had spoken out against the Taleban and al Qaeda and urged people to support the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.