Law enforcement officials have reported that seven school teachers were fatally shot on Thursday in Upper Kurram Tehsil in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with emergency being declared in all area hospitals after the latest outbreak of violence in the northwestern province.
Unidentified gunmen allegedly shot the teachers while they were in the staffroom of the tehsil’s high school, where they were performing their exam duties. Another teacher was reportedly killed in a moving vehicle on Shalozan Road in Parachinar, bringing the total number of educators killed that day to eight. Following the incident, the ongoing matriculation exams supervised by Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Kohat were postponed until further notice.
School shootings are uncommon in Pakistan, with the deadliest one being an attack on an army school in Peshawar in December 2016 that resulted in the death of over 140 individuals, mostly students. Pakistani officials, including President Dr Arif Alvi and former president Asif Ali Zardari, have condemned the attack and called for the swift apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators.
