A principal was killed and eight other people were injured in a grenade and gun attack on a school in the Pakistani city of Karachi , a police spokesman said Saturday . An unidentified motorcyclist hurled the hand grenade at the private middle school in the Baldia Town area of Karachi before letting off a volley of shots , police spokesman Asif Nawaz Sheikh told CNN . The school principal , named as Abdul Rasheed , was badly hurt and later died of his injuries in the hospital , the spokesman said . The eight others injured included a teacher and students at the school , he said . They were transferred to the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center and the Civil Hospital . Caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso condemned what he called a cowardly attack on innocent children , the official Associated Press of Pakistan ( APP ) news agency reported . The targeting of school children , including girls , reflected the brutality of the terrorists , he said , according to APP . Khoso , the former chief justice who was sworn in as interim prime minister less than a week ago , directed the local administration to give all the help needed to the families affected . The attack is only the latest to target educators in Pakistan . Another teacher , Shahnaz Nazli , recently died in the country 's northwestern Khyber tribal district in recent days after she was shot by two men on a motorcycle as she made her way to the girls ' school where she taught . In January , five teachers were killed near the town of Swabi in the volatile northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province , the United Nations says . In the wake of Nazli 's death , an online petition has been set up calling for Pakistan 's government to take a greater role in protecting girls and teachers to safely attend school . First to sign it was Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai , who was herself the subject of a vicious attack last October . The 14-year-old was riding home in a school van in the Swat Valley , a Taliban stronghold , when masked men stopped the vehicle and shot her in the head and neck . Malala , whose campaigning for girls ' education in Pakistan gained international attention in 2009 , has made a good recovery since but is still receiving treatment for her injuries in Britain . U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement Thursday through his spokesman condemning the recent attacks on teachers in Pakistan . `` In addition to the tragic loss of life , violence against teachers undermines confidence in education systems , traumatizes students , and discourages parents from sending children to school , '' the statement said . `` Attacks on women teachers are particularly heinous because they disproportionately affect the girl students for whom they serve as role models . '' Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown , who serves as the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education , has championed education issues in Pakistan , especially after the shooting of Malala . In a piece written for CNN , he asked , `` Can the world agree that 2013 will be the year when a girl 's right to education will finally be won -- even in the most remote and once lawless corners of the globe ? ''
An unidentified person hurls a grenade at a school before firing shots , police say . A school principal is killed in the attack in Karachi 's Baldia Town area , police say . Eight others , including a teacher and students at the school , are injured . The attack is the latest in a series targeting educators in Pakistan .