Islamabad, May 29 (IANS/DPA): Suspected militants ignited a fire with kerosene to burn down a girls' school in north-western Pakistan near the Afghan border, in a third incident this month targeting female education, officials said on Wednesday.

The compound was set ablaze on Monday night in the region of North Waziristan, stoking fresh fears about the safety of female students, whose education has been a target of Islamists for years.

The incident, which occurred in the remote region, was reported on Wednesday, local police chief Rehan Khan told dpa.

North Waziristan had long served as a headquarters for al-Qaeda and the affiliated Taliban before they were chased out by the military in a series of offensives in 2014.

The Pakistani Taliban, a group that follows the same hard-line Islam as its Afghan counterparts but has a different organisation, have bombed girls' schools in the past.

Hundreds of girls' schools were bombed in Waziristan and Swat, the home town of noble laureate Malala Yousafzai, between 2007 and 2009 when the Pakistani Taliban ruled these regions.

The latest attacks, after a gap of many years, have stoked fears that the militants can again target students as they did in 2014 when around 150 kids were killed at a military-run institution.