While keeping on attacking Afghan and the U.S-led coalition forces the suspected Taliban militias have begun targeting educational institutions parallel to soldiers in the post-Taliban Afghanistan as over 20 schools have been torched in the war-torn country over the past three months.

In their latest wave of violence against education, the suspected Taliban operatives set on fire a secondary school in the insurgency-hit southern Helmand province Saturday night and turned to ashes all the books and furniture found there.

The incident follows burning down four more schools in the same province as well as in Laghman on Friday night where the authorities blamed the "enemies of peace" a term used against Taliban loyalists.

Though, remnants of the former regime have not claimed responsibility for attacking the schools, the militias during its six-year reign in major part of the country that ended by the U.S.- led military campaign in late 2001 had banned girls' schools and changed the curriculum at educational institutions.

The former fundamentalist regime stressed on religious subjects largely in schools and universities.

It allowed girls to learn religious subjects before reaching mature while banned autopsy at medical colleges in the country.

According to local media reports, the militants' new tactic attacking the schools has forced local authorities to shut down 200 schools in the volatile provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces in south Afghanistan.

Parents of the pupils, have been asking the government to ensure security for the educational institutions in order to allow their children to be educated, the media said.

Besides cracking down on militants almost on daily basis, the Afghan government has been trying to provide educational facilities in each part of the country and encourage locals to send their offspring to schools. However, the government has yet to publicly punish any one on charge of torching education centers in the country.

The suspected Taliban operatives have claimed responsibility for the murder of two teachers in Helmand province over the past two months and warned others not to teach girls in any school, the media said, adding that they also called on the parents not to send their daughters to education centers.

The Taliban-linked militias who staged a violent comeback two years ago have vowed to oust the Karzai-led Afghanistan government and evict the U.S.-dominated foreign troops stationed in the country.

Over 1,500 people including the rebels, Afghan and American troops as well as aid workers and pro-government religious were killed in Taliban-linked militancy in 2005 while the militants' attacks have left 30 people dead and 50 others injured including one American and three Canadian soldiers since the beginning of this month.

Twenty one persons, all of them, were civilians lost their lives in a suicide attack in a single day in Kandahar's border town of Spin Boldak two weeks ago, according to officials.

Though, the Taliban fighters have denied their involvement in the bloody incident but officials blamed the "enemies of peace" a term used against Taliban-linked militias for the attack.

Taliban's elusive chief Mullah Mohammad Omar who has escaped the U.S. biggest manhunt in the region since the collapse of his regime four years ago in his rare statements vowed to continue Jihad or holy war by any possible means till overthrowing the regime and withdrawal of foreign troops from the county.

Source: Xinhua