5 Female Teachers Killed Among Seven People Fatally Shot In Pakistan
Islamic militants in northwestern Pakistan killed five female teachers and two aid workers on Tuesday in a believed retaliation attack.
Authorities believe the killings were in retaliation for giving polio vaccinations to girls in the town of Swabi in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Militants claimed continued polio vaccination work is making the Muslim population sterile and spreading pro-Western propaganda.
The teachers and aid workers were gunned down as they were returning from school.
No group has come forward and taken responsibility for the attack
The area where the attack occurred has been rife with violence, with several such instances occurring in the past few years, and according to Fox News, militant violence was sparked recently because of anti-polio vaccination beliefs.
In the same area in December, militants attacked aid workers conducting polio vaccination work, resulting in the deaths of nine workers. Similar attacks took place in the region in October, according to The Huffington Post.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has long been a hiding place for Islamic militants who utilize the region's proximity to Afghanistan to regularly carry out attacks in both countries. Islamic militants were also responsible for the deaths of 21 tribal police officers found dead on Sunday, Dec. 30.
Government officials believe the officers found fatally shot were the same ones kidnapped by Taliban forces on Dec. 27 in the dangerous northwest tribal region of the country. Twenty-three policemen disappeared and two others were killed during an attack by militants at two guard posts in Peshawar, according to The Associated Press.
The bodies of 21 policemen were found after midnight in the Jabai area of the region. The militants put the officers in a line and shot them down. One of the officers escaped and informed authorities, who then found the dead policemen and another officer seriously wounded.
