2 girls killed in Pakistan as gunmen open fire on schoolbus

On Thursday, gunmen in Pakistan targeted a school bus, killing two girls and injuring five other children, according to police. The attack took place in Attock, a town in the central Punjab province, as the children were on their way to school in the morning, said police official Usman Haider.

All the victims were between the ages of five and ten. While the motive behind the attack remains unclear, preliminary investigations suggest a possible feud between two families. Authorities are also considering the possibility of terrorism, Haider added.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack and directed the police to apprehend the assailants, according to a statement from his office.

This incident is part of a troubling trend where Islamist militants have targeted educational institutions. In 2014, Taliban gunmen killed nearly 150 children in a brutal assault on a military-run school in northwestern Pakistan. Earlier, in 2012, a Taliban member shot at a school bus in Swat, injuring Malala Yousafzai, who later received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.