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Afghan students attend a class at a local school in Haska Mina district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, May 29, 2019. A former base of the hardliner Islamic State (IS) group has been turned into a school in Haska Mina district of the eastern Nangarhar province, provincial governor Shah Mahmoud Miakhil said Sunday. (Xinhua/Saifurahman Safi)

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A former base of the hardliner Islamic State (IS) group has been turned into a school in Haska Mina district of the eastern Nangarhar province, provincial governor Shah Mahmoud Miakhil said Sunday.

"Lycee Payan, once served as the bastion of IS militants in Haska Mina district, accommodates hundreds of students today," Miakhil told Xinhua.

Militants affiliated to the IS group overran the Lycee Payan building in 2015, but the government forces defeated the hardliner group in early 2019, the official added.

Confirming the news, spokesman for the Education Department of Nangarhar province Asif Shinwari told Xinhua that the ruined building would be reconstructed in the near future to allow the children and teenagers to get education there.

Hundreds of schools, according to officials with the Ministry of Education, have remained closed mostly in the eastern and southern provinces where the Taliban and like-minded groups are operational and fighting the government forces.

Miakhil said Sunday. (Xinhua/Saifurahman Safi)