Two girls died and six others were injured Thursday after gunmen reportedly opened fire at a school van in Attock town of Pakistan's Punjab province.
The police said the gunmen had attacked the van's driver over an ongoing legal dispute with his family but ended up killing the girls aged 10 and 11.
Violence, particularly the terrorism-fuelled kind, has profoundly impacted Pakistan's children over the decades. Besides causing countless deaths, it has displaced them and forced them into unstable, dangerous living conditions. Attendant malaises like health risks, malnutrition, and psychological trauma have only worsened their plight. Violence has robbed Pakistan's children of lives and a normal childhood.