Militants kill female teacher, injure 2 others

KHAR: A female teacher was killed, and two of her colleagues were wounded, when masked militants shot them in an ambush in Khar, the main town of Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, officials said.

The victims – all women – were targeted as they returned home on foot from their school. “Five to six militants, who were hiding their faces, ambushed them.

One female teacher died on the spot,” Adalat Khan, an administrative official said, adding that her two wounded colleagues had been taken to the hospital.

Two intelligence officials also confirmed the incident.

Bajaur was once a stronghold of Taliban militants who are opposed to the education of girls and have destroyed hundreds of schools  in north west Pakistan in recent years. The army first launched operations in Bajaur in August 2008, and has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated the militant threat.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2010.