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Suspected Militants Kill Two Members Of Pakistani Religious Minority

A teacher writes letters from the Kalasha alphabet on a blackboard during a lesson at the Kalasha Dur school and community center in Brun village, located in Bumboret Kalash valley in 2011.

Suspected militants have killed two members of a religious minority group along the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Local officials told RFE/RL that the two men were Kalasha, a pagan tribe living in the secluded Chitral Valley in northwest Pakistan.

Officials said the suspected militants killed the two shepherds and took around 500 goats with them.

Wazir Zada, a member of the Kalasha community, said the suspected militants crossed the border from the Afghan province of Nuristan, where they returned after the attack.

Attacks against Pakistan's ethnic and religious minorities are on the rise, according to local human rights groups.

The Kalasha, which number just several thousand, speak their own language and celebrate festivals through music, dance, and alcohol, making them targets for Islamic militants.