Global Courant 2023-05-04 22:20:34
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Eight people, including six teachers, were killed in two separate shootings in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, authorities said.
There were initially no claims of responsibility for the attacks, which took place within a six-kilometer radius of Kurram, the only Shia-majority town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghan border.
Police say both attacks had sectarian overtones because Shia and Sunni Muslims in the area have a history of conflict.
In the first shooting, unknown assailants targeted a moving vehicle, killing a Sunni schoolteacher and injuring another, officials said.
Shortly afterwards, attackers entered the teacher’s lounge of a nearby government-run school and opened fire, killing five teachers and two construction workers.
Muhammad Imran, police officer in Kurram district, said the attackers killed them after identifying them as Shia believers.
There were no students in the school at the time of the shooting.
Local rescuers said they believe both attacks were retaliatory, though it was unclear what was behind the initial attack. The police have not yet issued an official statement about the fatalities.
Azam Ali, a local government representative, said the attack on the school appeared to be in response to the attack on the car.
Both an Islamic State cell called ISIS-K and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, are known to be active in the region.
In recent months, the Taliban have stepped up their attacks on police and military targets in the northwest of the country. The Pakistani Taliban have also attacked schools, killing 145 people in Peshawar in 2014, including 132 schoolchildren.
Following Thursday’s shootings, the government has postponed upcoming school exams in the region. Local hospitals began operating under emergency conditions and all roads leading to Kurram were closed, officials said.
The region has a history of sectarian violence and Shiites have often been targeted. In 2017, a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Parachinar, a town in Kurram district, killed 24 people and injured more than 70 others.
President Arif Alvi of Pakistan condemned the killing of the teaching staff. According to a statement from his office, Mr Alvi expressed the hope that the perpetrators would be apprehended and punished in accordance with the law.
Experts said details of the attacks so far suggest they were part of a long-standing tribal rivalry with sectarian dimensions.
“What is particularly concerning is that they come amid a resurgence of the highly jihadist groups that sparked a wave of sectarian-tribal conflict in the area more than a decade ago,” said Arif Rafiq, president of Vizier Consulting, a consulting firm. for political risks in New York. York.
“The Pakistani state is capable of managing tribal disputes,” he said. “But if the TTP and other Sunni jihadist groups get into the mix, it raises the risk that we could see something similar to the previous wave of sectarian violence.”
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad and Zia ur-Rehman from Peshawar, Pakistan.
