Islamabad, May 5, (dpa/GNA) – Gunmen stormed a school in north-western Pakistan on Thursday to avenge a sectarian murder, killing at least seven teachers, officials said.
The attack occurred in the restive district of Kurram, a region near the Afghan border, where a majority of the population follow the Shiite form of Islam, unlike the overwhelming Sunni majority in Pakistan.
All the victims at the school were Shiite Muslims, local police official Shaukat Toori said.
The gunmen targeted Shiite teachers to avenge the killing of a Sunni teacher, who was killed in a separate gun attack earlier in the day, Toori said.
Hundreds of students were taking exams at the school, but none of them was killed or hurt, the officer added.
The region of Kurram, which borders the Afghan province of Nangarhar, has remained tense for years due to sectarian clashes, between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
“It was a classic sectarian attack. First a Sunni was killed and then seven Shiites were gunned down indiscriminately in revenge,” said Ali Toori, who saw the dead bodies at the school.
A state of emergency has been declared at hospitals in the region, as officials fear another wave of sectarian killings after the attacks.
Around 4,000 people, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, have been estimated to have been killed in sectarian clashes in the Kurram region since 2001, according to local police.
GNA