On Thursday, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Inspector General of Police (IGP), Moazam Jah Ansari, said that the two distinct instances of gun violence that occurred in the province were not acts of terrorism but rather actions of personal retaliation.
When asked about the attack in Swat, KP IGP stated at a news conference, “The murder of the school-van driver on October 10 was a case of honour-killing.”
He said that a man murdered his sister’s husband in the case out of respect for him. “We have arrested one of the three suspects, and the police will shortly have the other two in their custody.”
IG Jah claimed that the shooting event in Lower Dir, which appeared to be directed towards children, was also an armed conflict between two opposing parties.
Shooting
On Monday, October 10, armed men ambushed a school van in the Swat Valley neighbourhood of Char Bagh, killing the driver and hurting a pupil.
The school van’s driver was the target of the gunmen, who fatally shot him while 10–11 pupils were in the van at the time of the attack.
The police also stated that the attack only injured the toddler who was seated in the front seat next to the driver.
The Valley demonstrations
After the incident, the entire valley gathered in the streets to demonstrate against the attack since they thought it was a terrorist act.
Intolerant, according to the protesters, are the terrorist attacks and the turmoil in the province. The demonstrators declared, “We seek regional peace and will combat terrorism.”
The extremists have denied responsibility for the shooting that occurred on Monday, but the residents of Mingora, the city where the attack occurred, suspect they were behind it.
Message from Malala
Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel winner in history, also voiced her opposition to the violent attack on a van carrying schoolchildren in her hometown, where she was shot for attending school over ten years ago.
“I join the tens of thousands of people calling for peace in Swat. The attack on a school bus carrying kids on Monday serves as a terrifying warning that our people cannot be coerced into living in fear and supporting terrorists once more, Malala said in a moving message on Twitter.