Inquiry urged into Pakistan raid

The school or madrassa was destroyed in the attack

Human Rights Watch has urged Pakistan to allow an independent inquiry into Monday's bombing of an Islamic school in which 80 people were killed.

The New York-based organisation said the death toll was so high that the government had to provide a "credible" justification for the raid.

The authorities say the school near the Afghan border was used by militants.

Survivors and locals insist it had no link with al-Qaeda or the Taleban, and that only students and teachers died.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the government to allow independent investigators into the area, in the tribal district of Bajaur.

"The onus is on the Pakistani government to provide a credible account of the legitimacy of the attack resulting in the deaths of so many," HRW's Ali Dayan Hasan said in New York.

The school had no link with al-Qaeda or Taleban - we were there to learn the God's religion Said Wali Press asks questions Send us your comments

The Pakistani government says the school was used by militants as a training camp and that no civilians died in the attack, carried out by helicopters.

However the claim was challenged by two of the three who survived the attack.

Said Wali, 18, told the BBC the school had no links with militants and that some students who died were young as seven.

"We were busy preparing for morning prayers when the place was bombed," he said.

Burnt face

Mr Wali also rejected government allegations that the head of the school, Maulvi Liaqat, had links with militants.

"He was a strict man who used to eulogise the Taleban but nothing more than that," he said.

Another survivor, Abu Bakar, 22, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that there was no militant training at the school.

The third survivor, Noor Rehman, 16, cannot speak because his face is badly burnt.

Since the raid thousands of local people have taken part in protests against Islamabad's alliance with the US.

There were also demonstrations in Peshawar and other cities.

The attack came as the Pakistani government was due to sign a peace deal with pro-Taleban militants in the Bajaur area, which now appears to have failed.

Sympathy for the Taleban and al-Qaeda among tribesmen in Bajaur is believed to translate into active support, the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says.

Pakistan has deployed nearly 80,000 troops along the border.

They are there to hunt militants who sought refuge after the ousting of the Taleban in Afghanistan in 2001.