3 Suspects in School Attack Die in Blast

JHIKA GALI, Pakistan —  Three of the men suspected of attacking a Christian school in Pakistan this week, killing six people, blew themselves up Tuesday after they were challenged by police, said Tahir Quyoom, deputy inspector general of police in the northern city of Muzaffarabad. All three are believed to be dead, Quyoom said.

Officials and diplomats said they believed that Monday’s attack on Murree Christian School--attended by 146 children of foreign missionaries working in Muslim Pakistan and neighboring countries--was a strike against Western interests rather than a religiously motivated attack.

It was the latest in a series of assaults targeting Christian institutions or foreigners in Pakistan since the military government of President Pervez Musharraf incensed militant Muslim groups by siding with the U.S.-led war on terrorism after Sept. 11.

At least four young men armed with assault rifles entered the school compound in Jhika Gali, 25 miles northeast of Islamabad, the capital, and opened fire, killing six Pakistanis, including two security guards and a retired teacher, police said. None of the students or the foreign staff of 30 to 35 were hurt. The attackers escaped after a 20-minute battle with guards.

Later, when police officers at a checkpoint saw three men approach in the nearby village of Khabadar, they searched one and found a grenade. Quyoom said the men were free after they threatened to blow up themselves and the officers. The men walked to a nearby river and a blast was heard, which Quyoom believed killed all three, he added.

One body was recovered from the river, and authorities were searching for the other two.