ISLAMABAD
In the northwestern Hangu district of Pakistan on Monday, gunmen opened fire on three primary school teachers that were on their way home after school, killing them on the spot, Hangu police said.
“They (deceased) were on their way home after school when two motor bikers opened fire on them. All three died on the spot,” Iftikhar Ahmed Khan, the Hangu police chief told reporters.
The incident took place in the suburban Kach Bunda area located 12 kilometers west of Hangu city. The motive behind the cold-blooded murder has yet to be ascertained. The main Hangu road near where the incident took place was blocked by residents for hours to protest against the incident.
Angry protestors including family members of the deceased pelted stones at vehicular traffic, and burned old tyres on the road.
Two of the deceased were Shiite, while one was Sunni, the police said. Hangu, located 250 kilometers south of Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province, which borders war-plagued Afghanistan, has been notorious for sectarian clashes with Hangu being one of the few districts in the province which has a sizable population of Shiites.
However, family members did not confirm that there was any sectarian involvement in the killings.
Pakistan is a Sunni majority country with 85 per cent Sunni population, whereas Shiites make up the 10 per cent total of 180 million people.
Police launched a search operation in the nearby Afghan refugee camp and detained 25 people on suspicion of involvement in the incident, the police said.
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