6 soldiers, 7 schoolteachers killed in Pakistan attacks

KABUL (Pajhwok): Six army soldiers and seven schoolteachers were killed on Thursday during separate attacks in northwestern Pakistan’s province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa near the Afghanistan border.

A military statement said Pakistani troops had engaged a “terrorists’ location” in the North Waziristan border district, killing three and wounding two others in the ensuing shootout.

“However, during an intense exchange of fire, six brave soldiers, having fought gallantly, embraced shahadat [martyrdom],” the statement said without further details.

The banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the violence, according to Voice of America The militant group, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, said security forces had tried to conduct a raid against TTP members in the area but were ambushed in the process, leaving seven of them dead.

Separately, police and hospital officials in another district, Kurram, on the Afghan border, said unknown gunmen had stormed a school and killed seven teachers, mostly members of the minority Shi’ite community.

No group immediately took responsibility for the shooting incident in the district center, Parachinar.

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