Attack on Pakistani School Kills 6

Gunmen attacked a boarding school for the children of American and other Christian missionaries in a Pakistani mountain resort town Monday, killing six people in an assault authorities said was aimed at foreigners.

The victims were all Pakistani men--two Christians and four Muslims, local police commander Asghar Ali Cheema said from Murree, in the Himalayan foothills about 25 miles northeast of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. Two school guards and a retired teacher were among the dead, and at least three other people were slightly wounded.

About 32 American children are among the school’s nearly 150 students, who also include Britons and Filipinos, police said.

“Their goal was to hit foreigners,” said district commander Moravet Shah, adding that police found a note at the scene expressing “resentment against world powers.”

“What we know is that they were terrorists,” he said. “Whether they were religious terrorists, we have to determine.”

The Murree Christian School was founded in 1956 for children of foreign missionaries working in Pakistan and neighboring countries. Classes go from grades one through 12, according to the school’s Web site.

Police said the gunmen were stopped before they got close to the classrooms or living areas.

A school statement said “all students and expatriate staff are safe and being cared for,” and added: “One missionary, Mrs. Visitacion, suffered an injury to the hand.”

The British founded the settlement of Murree in 1851 as a vacation spot, or “hill station,” when the Indian subcontinent was under colonial rule. From an altitude of 7,000 feet, it overlooks the roughly one-third of the disputed territory of Kashmir that is controlled by Pakistan.

Monday’s incident was one of several recent major attacks on Christian institutions or foreigners in Pakistan. President Pervez Musharraf had been struggling to control extremists even before he joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks.

About 11:15 a.m. Monday, four assailants, dressed in track suits and carrying knapsacks or other light bags on their backs, drove up to the school’s front gate on motorcycles and opened fire with automatic weapons, police said.

During a 20-minute gun battle, the militants killed two school guards and made it through the gate onto the grounds when at least one police officer shot at them. Police believe at least one gunman was wounded, but they all escaped.

A search with helicopters and dogs failed to track down any of the attackers by Monday night, police said.

The attack came as violence continued in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where India plans to hold staggered elections for a state assembly beginning in mid-September.

At least eight people were killed and 12 seriously injured at dawn today when suspected Islamic militants lobbed a grenade and opened fire on a group of Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir, police said. Security officers killed one of the attackers.

Police in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, said the attack occurred on the route taken by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the Amarnath shrine in the Himalayas.

Indian and Pakistani troops have engaged in limited clashes for several days along the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir.

The continued fighting and militant attacks are undermining U.S. and other foreign efforts to persuade the two nuclear-armed countries to start negotiations toward settling the 55-year-old dispute over Kashmir.

India hopes it can negotiate limited reforms with a newly elected government in Jammu and Kashmir state. But a loose alliance of separatist groups insists that its supporters will not participate in the vote, which they regard as India’s attempt to legitimize its rule in the territory. Arguing that Kashmiris have a right to self-determination, they want a referendum on independence.

Meanwhile Monday, the U.S. Consulate in Karachi was closed indefinitely for security reasons after local authorities decided to reopen the street in front to traffic. A suicide bomber killed 12 Pakistanis in a June 14 attack at the consulate.

Meanwhile, Karachi police quietly transferred the remains of slain American journalist Daniel Pearl to the consulate’s control.

Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi on Jan. 23 while investigating Islamic militant groups for the Wall Street Journal. Police found his remains in May near Karachi.