Repeated attacks: Another teacher shot, injured in Hangu

Bomb defused outside building of private school in the city.

HANGU:

Just as three days of mourning for three teachers gunned down in the city on Monday passed, another primary school teacher was shot and injured by unidentified militants on the city’s outskirts on Friday.

Azmat Bangash, an official of the Hangu police, told the The Express Tribune the incident occurred at around 12:10pm. Bangash said Munawar Hussain, resident of Aliabad, was teaching at the Government Primary School for Boys, Wrasta Road. He said Hussain was on his way home after school when two men on a motorcycle approached him from the back and opened fire, however, the teacher reacted quickly and jumped into a roadside pit. The militants escaped from the scene but managed to shoot Hussain in the leg.

Bangash added heavy contingents of police rushed to the site after they were informed by nearby residents and students of the incident. Hussain was shifted to District Headquarters Hospital Hangu where he is said to be in a stable condition.

The All Teachers’ Association has called for a protest against the incident in Peshawar, while a case has been filed against unidentified militants and further investigation is under way. A local police official said during initial reports that Hussain had been receiving threats by militants, warning him not to show up in the area and to quit his job.

Despite multiple attempts, DPO Hangu Iftikhar Ahmad could not be reached for comments.

The incident comes after the killing of three teachers in Kach Bandha, Hangu on Monday. Schools in the district had been closed for three days and reopened on Friday as the All Teachers’ Association had announced to mourn the attack. A police official said the teachers were being targeted for belonging to a particular sect.

Bomb defused outside school

An explosive device was defused by the bomb disposal squad (BDS) near a private school building in Thal, Hangu on Friday morning.

An official of Thal police, Farid Khan, said unidentified militants had planted a low-intensity bomb outside the Muslim Model School in Tandoro, Thal. Khan added a pedestrian spotted the bomb in the early hours of the morning and informed the police, who called for the BDS to defuse the bomb.

Khan said the BDS reached the scene around 8am and defused the bomb, planted near the gate of the main building. He added that 300 grammes of explosives were used in the bomb, which had been placed inside a canister.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2014.