Teri Mengal High School Shooting was Incident of Shia Target Killing – Ahmad Ijaz BBC Urdu

Editorial Note: Seven Shia Muslims including 4 teachers and three laborers were assassinated in Teri Mangal High School in KPK’s district Kurram after false rumors of murdering a Sunni school teacher. Officials from local administration to caretaker CM KPK without verification have termed the said killings as result of land disputes between Mangal and Turi Bangash tribes. Pakistan mainstream media not only disseminated the unverified information and didn’t correct the information after revealing the truth. Pakistan mainstream media as usual obfuscated the identity of the deceased teachers.  Here we are giving an English translation of an investigative feature story titled with ‘Land dispute or sectarianism: Contradictory claims on killing of eight people in Kurram district”1 written by Ahmad Ijaz posted at BBC Urdu.

Some main points of the story are:

‘Killings in School Shooting were not over land disputes.’

‘Slain person Muhammad Sharif was not a School teacher employed in Teri Mangal High School, he was a taxi driver, not gunned down due to Sunni faith but that was honor killing. Neither the incident occurred in Shia majority area, nor lynched.’

‘People of Teri Mangal village , consisting of Sunni population, were provoked by spreading false rumors of murdering a Sunni teacher in a Shia area through SMS, WhatsApp.’

‘Organized and armed with weapons, axes people entered the school, where they separated the four teachers and three laborers just their Shia identity, first they shot dead them, after killing their throats were cut’

This was not the first time when the Government administration made efforts to hide the Shia Killings. It is an established policy of every government to remain in a state of denial in case of persecution of the Shia community either from state actors  or non-state actors.

Such obfuscation-based discourse is also part of Pakistan main stream media. Read ‘Altruistic Shia genocide’2 by Abbas Zaidi.

It is to be noted that although Urd website of BBC posted an eye-opener investigative feature story which falsified the notion that ‘Teri Mangal High School shooting was due to land dispute or before this incident, Shia Muslim in a Shia majority area had shot dead a Sunni teacher’ but news story3 at BBC English website is still based on rumors and false propaganda that was disseminated by the Administration.

Official websites of major & leading media outlets of Pakistan still have the false and propaganda information in uploaded news stories on killings of Eight people in two different incidents in Kurram district of northwestern Pakistan.4,5,6,7,8

 

 What happened in Teri Mangal High School?  

On Thursday May 4, 2023, at 1:30 PM a car came under fire and a man named Muhammad Sharif was killed at the area of Nurke of District Kurram of KPK, Pakistan. The area where Muhammad Sharif was killed is about 20 kilometers away from Tri Mangal village.

According to local officials and government officials, soon after the incident, the mobile phones of the local people started going viral about such incidents. A teacher belonging to Dehas been murdered. A number of locals have shared details and discussions in this regard.

From Teri Mangal an angry mob stormed the local Government High School. Charged mobs tortured and killed teachers belonging to the Shia sect present in the staff room.

Seven people were killed in the incident, including   four teachers and three laborers who had gone to the school for ongoing construction work.

Eight people were killed in the two incidents, and initially government officials attributed the incident to a “dispute over land “.

However, local residents and journalists monitoring such incidents believe that the motive behind the murder of a man named Muhammad Sharif was honor killing (a matter of love marriage) and personal enmity.

When the Investigation Officer-IO of the Teri Mangal High School shooting case at Parachinar Headquarter Police station was asked if the killing of the school teachers was the result of personal enmity and grudge over land dispute between two tribes. He said that as per primary investigation of the case, it is very early to say that the killings have a link to land dispute.

“ Dispute on lands and Shamilat land(common property in villages) was not the reason behind the killings in Teri Mangal High School. The deceased teachers and laborers were residents of different villages. How can people from different regions have a dispute over land?”, said IO in Parachinar Headquarter Police.

However, when contacted, District Police Officer-DPO of the area, Mohammad Imran, insisted, “There is a   dispute between the people behind the incident.  There is a    dispute between the Mangal tribes and Turi tribes. If this problem is resolved, the killings in this area will end. ‘

When he was asked that the teachers who were murdered were not from the same area but from different places and they did   not have any mutual relatives.  On which piece of land can there be a dispute? On this, he said that the Turi and Bangash tribes and the Mangal tribes are settled in different villages, they do not live in one place.

Haji Abid Hussain, a tribal leader from this area claimed that he was an eyewitness to the whole incident. He too refuted the claim made by the DPO of Kurram.

“It is not a land dispute. Land dispute is between the Geddo tribe of Mangal tribes and Alzai of Pewar tribes. Teachers killed in the school shooting were not from these areas but from far-flung areas. Most of them were from Bangash tribes and thereby the deceased laborers were from other areas”, said Abid Hussain, while talking to the BBC.

“We had informed the district administration and other officials that the Parachinar killings were not the result of a land dispute”, Haji Abid Hussain added.

Who was Muhammad Sharif?

It may be recalled on local social media about Muhammad Sharif killed in the first incident of firing, it was claimed that he was also a teacher of the same school but later that claim proved false.

According to Shujaat Hussain, a leader of Teachers Association of Parachinar, “Muhammad Sharif was not even a teacher by profession. The False rumor was spread. There may be ulterior motives behind such rumors”.

According to local Station Police Officer-SHO Rajab Ali, Muhammad Sharif was not a teacher but a Taxi-driver. Neither he was a resident of Teri Mangal village nor belonged to the tribes living there.

How the messages viral after murder of Muhammad Sharif paved the way for the massacre of 7 Shia Muslims in Teri Mengal High School? A debate exists among the people of Kurram district on social level. We talked to some local about the incident:

Local elder Haji Rahim said that ‘there was a misunderstanding on both sides, innocent people were killed on both sides and communal riots took place. Here the government’s writ is very weak. If the writing was strong, this would not have happened.

Muhammad Sharif and Viral Messages:

Local journalists and the residents, who had monitored the incident say that as soon as news of murdering the Muhammad Sharif went viral messages were appeared on social media apps like WhatsApp, twitter, Facebook, TikTok, highlighting the false rumor that the deceased person Muhammad Sharif was posted as a teacher at Teri Mangal high school and he was Sunni killed in Shia majority area.

Syed Adnan Haider, a local journalist told us, ‘message were spread that a person belonging to Sunni faith was assassinated and it must be avenged.

“So, some people entered the school and four teachers, who were Shia, were tortured and later shot.’, said Haider.

According to the claim made by a Police Officer involved in the investigation of the case, said,  “No doubt killings in school were committed by the people under influence of false propaganda about the murder of Muhammad Sharif. Such kind of negative propaganda continues to happen here.”

P.R. Ahmed was on duty as superintendent and at that time he was present in the school and was busy preparing for the examination to be held at 2 o’clock. He said, “We were told that the school has been attacked in response to the person who was killed in the car earlier and an armed gang has entered, so get out of here immediately.”

He said that the teachers who died had also left the school during the holiday, but as soon as they saw the crowd coming towards the school, they came back.

“We three people went to Malik Sawab Khan’s Hujra(guestoom) and took shelter there.”

According to Syed Mohammad Haji, the brother of the murdered teacher Syed Hussain, “My brother sent me a message on WhatsApp at 1:55 PM that there has been a murder on the way to school, the situation looks bad. Then the next message came in the next minute that I will come late. At present I am quite safe, but I think they will not leave us. Then WhatsApp stopped at 2:30 PM.”

It should be noted that the area of Teri Mangal consists of people belonging to the Sunni sect. In the government high school here, teachers and lower staff are from both Sunni and Shia sects.

Shujaat Hussain, leader of Teachers’ Association said, ‘slain teachers in Teri Mangal High School’ were performing their duties there for many years.’

The father of the slain teacher Syed Hussain, who was a resident of Duravi area, said that ‘my son used to teach the children there. A teacher is like a father, he did not even regard his spiritual father and killed him brutally.’

Another slain teacher Syed Ali Shah belonged to Alishari area. His cousin Syed Mujahid Hussain told us that Syed Ali Shah had no intention to go to school. He told me that he didn’t have any work at school that day, but later he had got a call from the school, and he left, while saying that I have to go today.

 

According to Syed Ali Shah’s nephew, Syed Quaid Ali Shah, ‘school is dismissed at one o’clock, but I do not understand why my uncle and other teachers stayed there and did not come home after school at one o’clock.?’

According to Tanveer Hussain, cousin of another slain teacher Liaquat Hussain, ‘Liaquat Ali cared a lot about the children of this school, he had been teaching there for many years.’

“On the day of the incident, he had an eye infection but still went to school”, Liaquat Ali added.

Relatives of the slain tea have shared some audio with the BBC, in which some people are expressing joy over the death of teachers belonging to a particular sect (Shia Muslims).

 

To be noted that after this incident, all kinds of business was closed ,  life paralyzed in Kurram district, there was completely shut down and the already tight security was beefed up more in the area. Apart from additional police troops, paramilitary force personnel were deployed at various locations of the District.

 

After the murders, the entrances to Karam district were closed, which were opened the next day. According to the Karam district police, three cases have been registered for the murder of eight people in two different incidents of firing.

 

All the three cases have been registered against unknown persons and sections of the Anti-Terrorists Act are also included in FIRs.

 

References:

1-https://www.bbc.com/urdu/articles/clw91jrdx7qo

2-https://shiamuslimgenocide.com/understanding-genocide-is-shia-muslim-community-facing-genocidal-campaign-by-abbas-zaidi/

3-https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65480770

4-https://www.dawn.com/news/1750870/5-teachers-among-8-killed-in-kurram-firing-incidents-police

5-https://tribune.com.pk/story/2415082/eight-teachers-gunned-down-in-kurram

6- https://www.brecorder.com/news/40240324/at-least-seven-killed-after-firing-inside-school-premises-in-upper-kurram

7-https://dailytimes.com.pk/1090131/seven-including-five-teachers-killed-in-separate-shootings-in-kurram-humanity-bleeds/ (although Daily Times website reveals the religious identity of deceased persons but didn’t updated the information still 6 days passed)

8- https://www.nation.com.pk/05-May-2023/six-teachers-among-8-gunned-down-in-kurram-school-firing

 

By: Ahmad Ijaz /Translated by SMG team