Islamabad: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has recommended that a high award for bravery be bestowed on a teenager who was killed this week while stopping a suicide bomber from attacking his school.

The announcement came after calls had grown across the country to honour the teenager, Aitzaz Hasan, a ninth-grader from the Hangu district of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Heroic ... Pakistani student Aitzaz Hassan, who was killed after stopping a suicide bomber outside his school in Hangu district.

The bombing took place on Monday near a boys’ school in the village of Ibrahimzai. Aitzaz, 17, grew suspicious when a man wearing the same school uniform as his asked for directions. The teenager then tackled the stranger as he tried to flee, and the stranger blew them both up.

Prominent Pakistanis, journalists and social media campaigners have called Aitzaz a hero and have even compared him to Malala Yousufzai, the teenage girl who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for defying their ban on female education.