Seven Shia teachers were shot dead by unknown attackers at a school in the Kurram district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), with the regional commissioner terming the killings sectarian in nature.
In a separate incident in the Upper Kurram area, resident Mohammad Sharif was killed.
Seven Shia school teachers were killed when gunmen opened fire at the Government High School of Teri Mangal area.
The teachers include: Syed Hussain, Liaquat Hussain, Syed Ali Shah, Mehdi Hussain, Mohammad Ali, Ali Hussain and another invigilator, Express Tribune reported.
Contradictory accounts were being given for the motive behind the killings. The provincial Chief Minister’s Office cited the land dispute to be the cause, but the regional commissioner said it could be sectarian killings.
A Canada-based think tank, International Crisis Group (ICG) had reported that 4,847 Shias were killed in incidents of sectarian violence between 2001 and 2018.
In 2022, a suicide bombing inside a Shia mosque in Peshawar killed at least 56 people and injured 194 others, according to hospital officials. The bombing took place as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers at the Kucha Risaldar mosque in Peshawar’s old city.
In 2017, a bomb targeting a Shia mosque in Parachinar killed 22 people and injured nearly 70 others on Friday in an attack claimed by a Taliban faction.
Pakistan has witnessed a resurgence of terrorism with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) targeting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa particularly.
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