Two schoolteachers gunned down in Hangu

Seven teachers have been killed in targeted attacks since Feb 8.

HANGU:

Two schoolteachers were gunned down by suspected militants Tuesday morning, triggering noisy protests in Hangu and Kohat. The teachers were ambushed by suspected militants while they were going to Government High School No 1 in Hangu city, Iftikhar Khan, the district police officer, told The Express Tribune. Both were fatally wounded.

Another police officer, Aslam Khan, identified the slain teachers as Shamim Badshah, a resident of Speen Khawri area, and Liaquat Ali, from the Alizai area of Kohat. He added that one teacher was from the Sunni sect, while the other belonged to the Shia sect.

Local residents informed the police about firing – and a party was immediately rushed to the site, Khan said. The injured were ferried to the District Headquarters Hospital where medics pronounced them dead on arrival. The police registered the double murder case and started investigations.

Hundreds of students from Government High School No 1 blocked the Hangu-Kohat GT Road to protest the killing of their teachers. They said several teachers have been targeted during the last three months – but the police couldn’t arrest a single killer. Similar protests were staged in the Raisan area of Hangu and the Sher Kot area of Kohat where protesters blocked the roads for traffic.

Local elders questioned the silence of the provincial government over unabated targeted attacks on teachers. They warned that if immediate measures were not taken, they would launch a ‘massive protest campaign’ against the government.

This was the fourth targeted attack on schoolteachers over the past three months. On February 8,  a teacher was gunned down in the Malana area in Upper Kurram Agency which is adjacent to  Hangu. Two days later, three teachers were shot dead in the Kach Bandha area – and on Feb 14, another teacher was killed in the Aliabad area.

According to preliminary investigations into Tuesday’s killing, the two teachers were shot by pistols of the same calibre that were used in earlier attacks-- pointing to the possible involvement of the same group in all attacks.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2014.