PESHAWAR: Taliban militants attacked a group of high school students on their way to school in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing four of them and wounding three, a government official said.
The students were apparently attacked because they were Shia Muslims. Taliban militants are from the majority Sunni community and attack Shias as part of their strategy to fight the government.
‘They opened ... fire on the students and we have reports of four deaths,’ said Khaista Gul, an official in the administration of the Orakzai ethnic Pashtun tribal region, where the attack took place.
Two tribesmen belonging to Taliban faction of Aslam Farouqui and one from the rival side were also injured in the crossfire.
Officials fear the death toll may rise because heavy weapons were being used in the clashes between the Shia factions of Utman Khel and Taliban from Zaridar area.
Aslam Farouqi is a close aide of Mullah Omer and also sent his armed men for his support when the US attacked Afghanistan in October 2001.
According to locals, the Utman Khel tribesmen killed four Taliban militants last week and the militants retaliated last week by kidnapping a child and trying to make other people hostage which led to the face-off.
Both the tribes have taken positions in the mountains and are targeting each other with rockets and machine guns.
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