DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A woman teacher at a girls’ seminary was killed after she was allegedly stabbed in the neck by three female students, police said on Tuesday.

The students accused of carrying out the fatal attack have been arrested.

Initial investigations indicated that the deceased and the accused had developed some differences over religious issues. The assailants thought the slain teacher, Safoora Bibi, 21, had committed blasphemy, said Imtiaz Janjua, a spokesperson for the district police.

The incident took place at Jamia Islamia Falah Al-Banat, situated in the Anjumabad area on Dera Multan Road, at about 7am on Tuesday.

According to the FIR, the three girls — Umra Aman, 24, daughter of Deen Badshah; and Razia Hanifia, 21, and Aisha Noman, 17, daughters of Allah Noor — allegedly injured the teacher with a stick at the gate of the madressah and later stabbed her in the neck, killing her.

The accused students told police that a religious personality appeared in the dream of one of their relatives — a 13-year-old girl — and said the teacher had committed blasphemy, sources said.

Police said that upon receiving information about the incident, a contingent of policemen led by DSP Saghir Gilani rushed to the madressah and took the teacher’s body to District Headquarters Hospital Dera for postmortem.

According to the FIR, at about seven in the morning, Safoora Bibi got off a rickshaw and entered the gate of her madressah. As soon as she entered the gate she was attacked by the three students and died on the spot.

According to police, a knife and a stick were recovered from the arrested girls.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2022