ISLAMABAD: Pakistan have rocked by a gruesome attack on Thursday afternoon, as unidentified armed assailants entered the staffroom of Terry Mengal School in the Parachinar area of Upper Kurram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, adjacent to the Afghanistan border, and opened fire on the teachers present there. In this shocking incident, several teachers were killed, including five from the Shia community.
#BreakingNews : Seven teachers gunned down in a school in Parachinar, near the Pak-Afghan border. Armed persons entered the school and opened fire in the staff room. Says Officials pic.twitter.com/T7sdPXdzVC
— Ghulam Abbas Shah (@ghulamabbasshah) May 4, 2023
According to Aljazera, reporting from Islamabad, said the “gruesome incident” took place in an area which has witnessed in the past sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni tribes.
“Most of the teachers who were killed belonged to the Turi Shia tribe,” Hyder said.
“This particular attack targeted the teachers while they were in the staffroom … They were there to conduct examinations which are underway throughout the province for lower secondary school,” he said.
Although the Tehreek-e-Taliban organization has been responsible for similar attacks in the past, no organization has claimed responsibility for this attack yet. There is an atmosphere of panic in the area, and the authorities have launched a massive hunt for the attackers.
Adding to the horror, there are reports of another shooting incident that took place about six kilometers away in the Shalojan area, where a man was also killed. It is unclear if this incident is related to the attack on the school.
The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has strongly condemned the incident, with its co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari terming it as a terrorist incident and demanding that the government take swift action against the culprits.
This brutal attack on teachers, who are the cornerstone of any society’s progress, has shocked and saddened the entire nation. The government and law enforcement agencies need to take all possible measures to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice and ensure the safety and security of the people in the area.