Two separate blasts occurred in the Nangarhar and Laghman provinces, killing a school head teacher and a provincial lawmaker. –Photo by Reuters

JALALABAD: A school head teacher and a provincial lawmaker were killed in two separate explosions in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said.

The headmaster was killed by a bomb in his office at the school on the outskirts of Jalalabad city in Nangarhar province, a spokesman for the provincial education department, Mohammad Asif Shinwari, told AFP.

The Taliban denied responsibility for the attack on the school, which educates boys. The militants are known to attack schools, especially those that educate girls.

During their six years in power up to 2001, the Taliban banned girls from going to school or working outside the home, in accordance with their extreme interpretation of Islam.

Meanwhile in neighbouring Laghman province, a former head of the provincial council was killed when his vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb.

“Malim Malang was martyred and another person accompanying him in his vehicle was wounded,” provincial spokesman Kuchai Nasiri told AFP.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Taliban and other insurgents have been waging a bloody insurgency against international and Afghan government forces since being ousted from power more than nine years ago.