PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 4, 2023 (AFP) – Five teachers and two labourers were gunned down Thursday at a school in northwest Pakistan, in an attack linked to Sunni-Shiite sectarian tensions, police and government officials said.
“When the two attackers went inside (the school), they identified Shiite people and separated them before opening fire,” Muhammad Imran, police chief for Kurram district in Pakistan’s former tribal areas, told AFP.
The attack came after a man from the Sunni sect of Islam was killed in his car earlier in the day, Imran said, adding local authorities were in talks with both communities to restore peace in the district.
The incidents were confirmed by Amir Nawaz, a senior government official in Parachinar, the main town in the largely Shiite Kurram district, which has a long history of sectarian violence.
Shiite Muslims make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan’s population of more than 220 million.