Taliban militants attacked a Shia group of high school students on their way to school in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing four of them and wounding three, a government official said.
The students were apparently attacked because they were minority Shia Muslims. Taliban militants who are guided by US and Wahhabians attack Shias as part of their strategy to fight the government.
"They opened ... fire on the students and we have reports of four deaths," said Khaista Gul, an official in the administration of the Orakzai ethnic Pashtun tribal region, where the attack took place.
Tribesmen retaliated after the attack and the two sides were fighting, said residents of the area near the town of Kalaya.
Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks across the northwest since mid-2007.
Pakistani security forces have had some success against the Taliban in parts of the northwest this year and the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. missile strike last month.
Orakzai is a stronghold of Hakimullah Mehsud who has been appointed the new Pakistani Taliban chief.
Pakistani and U.S. officials said the militants were in disarray after Baitullah was killed and attacks appeared to tail off slightly though they have been picking up again over the past fortnight.
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