SWAT: The relatives of the deceased van driver continued their protest on Tuesday for the second consecutive day after the attack on a school bus killed their family member.
The protesters said that the protest will continue till the culprits are brought to justice.
They said that the terrorist attacks and the unrest in the province are intolerable. “We want peace in the region and we will fight terrorism,” said the protesters.
Residents of Mingora, the city where the attack took place, fear it was carried out by the Pakistani Taliban but the militants have denied responsibility for Monday’s shooting.
“People are angry and they are protesting. Students from all the private schools came out to protest,” Ahmad Shah, principal of a private school said, adding that schools would remain closed on Tuesday.
The Incident
A driver of a school vehicle was killed and two students injured when unknown assailants opened fire when they were going to school in the Guli Bagh area of Swat on Monday. Police said that two assailants riding on motorcycles managed to escape from the crime scene.
Soon after the incident Rescue 1122 teams reached the spot and shifted injured students to the hospital for treatment. Police have cordoned off the area and started a search operation. The driver who died on the spot is identified as Hussain Ahmed son of Anyatullah, and two students of Swat Public School injured in the incident are Azhar Hussain son of Jan Bakhat resident of Dir and Mammon son of Safiullah, resident of Chitral.
According to police, the suspect was targeting the driver of the school van who was killed, adding that 10-11 students were present inside the van at the time of the shooting. The police also confirmed that only one child, sitting in the front seat with the driver, was injured in the attack. They added that the child was out of danger.
When the incident was reported, it was said that two children were injured. However, the other child, who was reported as injured, had fallen unconscious after the shooting and seen blood on the crime scene. The police said that a search operation had been carried out in the area.
Monday’s attack comes a day after the 10th anniversary of the shooting of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) when she was a schoolgirl.