A teacher was murdered by a colleague and her two nieces after a relative dreamt she had insulted the Prophet Muhammed, police said.
The trio ambushed Safoora Bibi on Tuesday at the main gate of the all-girls religious school, according to the police in Pakistan.
She was attacked with a knife and a stick and died after her throat was slit, they added.
The main suspect is a colleague who allegedly staged the crime with two nieces studying at the Jamia Islamia Falahul Binaat school.
Police said the girls told them a relative had dreamt the victim ‘had committed blasphemy’ against the Prophet Mohammed.
Few issues in Pakistan are as galvanising as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests and incite lynchings.
Officers said they were also investigating if the main suspect, Umra Aman, had a personal grudge against Ms Bibi.
Tuesday’s incident took place in Dera Ismail Khan in the country’s ultra-conservative northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
Known as madrassas, religious schools have long served as vital lifelines for millions of impoverished children in Pakistan, where social services are chronically underfunded.