PESHAWAR: At least three people, including a school principal and Rescue 1122 official, were injured on Tuesday when unknown assailants targeted a private school with “back-to-back quadcopter attacks” in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali, local sources said.

For months, banned militant organisations in the region have been using improvised munitions like quadcopters to drop explosives, targeting security forces and civilians.

According to local sources, the incident took place in Khasokhel village, where “explosives were dropped from the quadcopter onto the premises of Al-Fatah Public School, injuring the school’s principal and security guard.”

Soon after the incident, a Rescue 1122 medical team reached the site to provide first aid and evacuate the injured.

However, rescue officials said that while rescue personnel were engaged in relief work, another quadcopter dropped a mortar shell near the scene, injuring a Rescue 1122 worker.

“All the injured were provided initial medical treatment and later shifted to Bannu for further care, where their condition was stated to be stable,” a Rescue 1122 official said.

Sources said that the attack triggered panic in the area, forcing people living near the school to rush out of their homes in fear.

Residents strongly condemned the attack on rescue workers, calling it “highly deplorable”. Rescue officials said their personnel reached the area despite serious security threats and continued their duties under life-threatening conditions.

A local told Dawn that targeting a school through a drone attack was “an act of hostility against education and a dangerous assault on the lives of innocent children.”

Government authorities confirmed that an investigation into the incident was underway, while no militant group had so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Parents and social figures of the area expressed grave concern over the incident, stating that attacks on educational institutions and emergency service providers were unacceptable. They urged the government to take immediate and effective security measures to ensure the safety of students, teachers, and civilians in the region.

There has been a history of targeting schools, especially girls’ schools, in several parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as the militants in the region don’t consider girls’ education legitimate as per their ideology.

Earlier in December, the terrorists blew up a government girls’ school in Mir Ali, North Waziristan district, by planting explosives during the night hours. Around 250 girls were enrolled at the school.

In the same month, the lives of over 600 school-going children were put at risk when unidentified militants blasted a government primary school by planting explosives.