Teenage boy shoots girl, then himself on school premises

Couple leaves behind suicide notes, asking parents to bury them together

KARACHI: A teenage boy shot a girl and then himself on the premises of Gulshan-e-Fatima school in Soldier Bazaar on Tuesday morning.

All the students were gathered in the assembly hall when they heard two gunshots, a minute apart, inside a classroom. The teachers and some administration staff rushed to the classroom and found the two Matric students lying in a pool of blood. It appeared that 16-year-old N* shot 15-year-old F* and then himself in a successful attempt at suicide.

"It was around 8:15am when I heard a gunshot and when I reached the classroom, both [the students] were dead," said a school guard.

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"I was present in the classroom when the bell rang for the assembly," F's friend recalled, adding that she asked her to come along but she refused and told me to go ahead. Her friend overheard F telling N to shoot her first and then, after five minutes, they heard the gunshot.

N and F used to study in the same class and coaching centre and also used the same van to reach the school. One of their class fellows added that the two lived in the same neighbourhood as well. "Their love story started a year ago," said one of their class fellows. "I had heard him saying many times that he will kill her and himself if he is unable to marry her."

The young couple, one of whom belonged to the Ismaili community and the other from the Hazara community, had left behind two suicide notes for their parents. Both of them said that they were aware that their parents would never allow them to get married which is why they decided to take their lives. Both letters, which appear to be written by the same person, requested the parents to honour their dying wish to be buried next to each other.

"N had been bringing a gun to school for the last last three days and kept saying that he will kill himself and F also," said a friend. "I thought he was just joking because he usually talks like this, which is why we never informed our principal." However, the police officials said that the gun belonged to F's father and she was the one who brought it to school. Soldier Bazaar SHO Irshad Soomro said that they have confiscated the couple's school bags, the pistol and the two letters. The police found another letter from N in her books. The teenage boy had asked her to bring the gun to school on Tuesday so they can commit suicide, said Soomro, adding that the gun had only two bullets that were used in the incident.

Another class fellow said the two would always say that they will kill each other if their families did not allow them to get married. "They had cut their wrists a few months ago to warn their parents," she added.

* Names withheld to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2015.