Enlarge By Mohammad Sajjad, AP Local boys walks over the rubble of the damaged portion of a girls school, wrecked by suspected militants in Pakistan on Tuesday. PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP)  Suspected Islamist militants blew up a girls school close to the main city in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, police said. The school was empty at the time of the blast and no one was injured. A timed explosive device is believed to have caused the explosion that badly damaged the school on the outskirts of Peshawar, police officer Hamdullah Khan said. al-Qaeda and Taliban militants hold sway across much of northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan and have often targeted girls schools in both countries because they believe that women should not be educated. The military has launched large offensives across parts of the region in an attempt to rein the militants in, but they remain strong in much of the mountainous, lawless zone. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said Tuesday that the global fight against terrorism requires not just a military solution but also gaining the trust of civilians in regions where insurgents operate. "No war against terrorism can be won without the support of the people," Gilani told a crowd in the eastern city of Multan as part of Eid al-Fitr celebrations at the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Winning over the hearts and minds of the civilian population was crucial in assisting the military offensive in the northwestern Swat Valley that ousted Taliban militants from power in July, Gilani noted. The army launched the Swat offensive in April after local Taliban leaders, who had imposed their harsh interpretation of Islam on residents there, violated a peace deal with the government and expanded into Buner, a district within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad. Gilani also said Pakistan will not allow terrorists to plot attacks on its soil against other countries, including archrival India. The comment came a day after the leader of a banned Pakistani Islamist group that India accuses of carrying out attacks on its financial capital late last year was placed under house arrest again. Pakistani police prevented Hafiz Muhammad Saeed from leaving his home Monday. Saeed is a founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which New Delhi says masterminded the commando-style assault that killed 166 people in Mumbai last November. Yahya Mujhaid, a spokesman for Saeed, condemned the arrest as illegal and unconstitutional. Pakistan detained Saeed in December, but a Pakistani court freed him from house arrest in June saying there was not enough evidence to hold him. The prime minister said Tuesday that more evidence tying Saeed to the Mumbai attacks was needed for a criminal case to proceed. "The government has taken Hafiz Saeed in custody, but further action against him depends on proof available," Gilani later told reporters. In the northwest, police acting on a tip recovered arms, ammunition and explosives Tuesday hidden near Kohat town — the scene of a suicide bombing Friday that killed more than 30 people, police chief Dilawar Bangash told The Associated Press. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more
Police in northwestern Pakistan said that suspected Taliban militants have blown up a primary school that educated girls on Tuesday.
Northwest Pakistan 
Officials say there were no casualties in the blast, which occurred on the outskirts the city of Peshawar, because the school was closed for the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"The school building, which consisted of three rooms was destroyed in the blast," said Hamdullah Khan, a local police official. He said that the explosion was likely caused by a timed explosive device.

Al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants who oppose the education of women have destroyed hundreds of girls' schools across the country.  Almost 200 schools were destroyed in the  after a two-year campaign to enforce sharia law was made by , a radical Islam cleric.
On Monday, police killed a suicide bomber trying to assassinate a regional education minister in the country's northwestern regions.

In other violence, Pakistani security forces say they have arrested eleven suspected militants, including three Afghanis, during security operations in  and Swat districts. In a statement released Tuesday, officials say they also found four inter-linked tunnels and bomb-proof bunkers during a separate search operation near Swat's Biakand area.