In a Pakistani school, six people were killed, including two teachers and four other staff members.
Gunmen attacked a government school in which students were taking exams.
Officials said that the atrocity may have been a retaliation to an earlier attack, in which a teacher was killed on a nearby street.
Saiful Islam, regional commissioner, stated that the victim of the first attack was a Sunni Muslim while the victims of the school attack were Shia Muslims.
The two incidents occurred in Parachinar, a tribal district of Kurram in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province that borders Afghanistan.
The majority Shia residents of the district are attacked frequently by Sunni militants from the local Taliban Movement.
Mr Islam claimed that sectarian animosity appeared to have been the cause of these killings, while the office of the chief minister in the province said they were the result a dispute over property.
The commissioner said that it was not clear if the second incident had been a response to the first. He added that the security in the area, which is already tense due to sectarian violence, has been increased.
Abbas Ali, a local police official in the area, said that it was unclear if there were any links between the attacks.
He said, “We’re looking at all angles and we don’t know who killed the teacher yet.”
Shehbaz Sherif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan has condemned these attacks and ordered a probe.
Six Pakistani soldiers died in a shooting incident in North Waziristan on Thursday morning, another district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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The military did not provide any details about the shooting but stated that three militants also died.
The area is home to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (or TTP), and other militant groups. TTP is an independent group that has allied itself with the Afghan Taliban.
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan by August 2021 emboldened TTP. They have intensified attacks in Pakistan, targeting primarily security forces.
The military conducted raids against militant hideouts throughout the Northwest in recent weeks. Dozens of insurgents were killed or arrested.
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