Principal killed in Pakistan school grenade attack

Karachi: Unknown militants hurled a hand grenade onto a school during a passing out ceremony, killing the principal of the college and injuring six children in a western neighbourhood on Saturday.

Police said that the attack was carried out at the private school located in Baldia Town. Abdul Rasheed, who was the owner and the principal of the school, was severely injured while six other students also sustained injuries.

Rasheed later succumbed to his injuries. Two of the six injured pupils are in critical condition. The incident took place at a time when the staff and the students assembled in the courtyard of the school for examination result announcements.

The source said that police were investigating the attack. It is said that Rasheed, the owner of the school, was also an activist of Awami National Party (ANP) a Pashtun nationalist party which is the target of Taliban militants among other parties.

The Taliban recently warned people to stay away from rallies and political activities of ANP, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan People’s Party.

Baldia Town is located in the western outskirts of the city and is said to be a hotbed for Taliban and other banned outfits.

For the past several days police and rangers have carried many operations and crackdowns and arrested dozens of suspect Taliban and other criminals from the area. A huge quantity of weapons and explosive material were also recovered in the operations.

Elsewhere during a shootout at least one soldier from the paramilitary rangers was injured whereas two criminals were also shot during a targeted operation.

Sources said that the rangers launched the operation this morning in volatile Lyari district on the tip-off that some suspects were hiding there. The contingents of rangers sealed the area and arrested many suspects.

Some of the criminals opened fire on the searching soldiers injuring one of them and in retaliatory firing two outlaws were injured. The injured suspects were said to be involved in a murder of trader who was shot down on Friday.

-http://gulfnews.com/news