A father mourns beside the body of his son at a hospital after an attack by Taliban gunmen on a school in Peshawar yesterday. Photo: AFP At least 132 students and nine staff members were killed yesterday after Taliban gunmen broke into a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and opened fire, witnesses said, in the bloodiest massacre the country has seen for years. More than eight hours after mi
litants slipped into the heavily guarded compound through a back entrance, the army declared the operation to flush them out over, and said that all nine insurgents had been killed. The attack on a military-run high school attended by more than 1,100 people, many of them children of army personnel, struck at the heart of Pakistan's military establishment, an assault certain to enrage the country's powerful army. * Tehreek-e-Taliban claims responsibility * Pak PM terms it national tragedy * UN chief slams 'savage extremism' * All six militants killed in operation Wounded children taken to nearby hospitals told Reuters most victims died when gunmen, suicide vests strapped to their bodies, entered the compound and opened fire indiscriminately on boys, girls and their teachers. The Taliban, waging war against Pakistan in order to topple the government and set up an Islamic state, immediately claimed responsibility. "We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. "We want them to feel the pain." But Afghanistan's Taliban have condemned the attack. Advertisement "The intentional killing of innocent people, children and women are against the basics of Islam and this criterion has to be considered by every Islamic party and government," Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. The Pakistani Talibans are separate from but allied to the Afghan Talibans across the border. Both aim to overthrow their own governments and establish an Islamic state, reports Reuters. A soldier escorts schoolchildren after they were rescued from the Army Public School that was under attack by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar yesterday. Photo: AFP SUICIDE BOMBERS As night fell on Peshawar, a teeming, volatile city near the Afghan border, security forces wrapped up an operation that lasted more than eight hours and involved intense gun battles. The military said about 960 pupils and staff were evacuated. The Taliban said the gunmen had been equipped with suicide vests and at least three explosions were heard inside the high school at the height of the massacre. Outside, as helicopters rumbled overhead, police struggled to hold back distraught parents who were trying to break past a security cordon and get into the school. Officials said 121 pupils and three staff members were wounded. A local hospital said the dead and injured were aged from 10 to 20 years old. A Reuters correspondent visiting the city's major Combined Military Hospital said its corridors were lined with dead students, their green-and-yellow school uniform ties peeping out of the white body bags. The gunmen, who several students said communicated with each other in a foreign language, possibly Arabic, managed to slip past the school's tight security because at least some of them were wearing Pakistani military uniforms, some witnesses said. Volunteers carry an injured school girl to a hospital. Photo: AFP NOT A HOSTAGE ISSUE The terrorists who attacked a school in Peshawar, had 'no intention' of taking hostages, rather they wished to kill as many people as possible. This was said by DG ISPR Asim Bajwa during a media briefing in Peshawar last night, reports DawnNews. Bajwa described an assault that seemed designed purely to terrorize the children rather than take anyone hostage to further the militant group's aims. “Their sole purpose, it seems, was to kill those innocent kids. That's what they did,” he said. Army chief Raheel Sharif's first public remarks after the attack reflected rising anger. "These terrorists have struck the heart of the nation. But our resolve to tackle this menace has gotten a new lease of life. We will pursue these monsters and their facilitators until they are eliminated for good," he said. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used similarly strong words. "We will take revenge for each and every drop of our children's blood that was spilt today," he said. Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was herself shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012, said she was "heartbroken" by "the senseless and cold-blooded" killing. "Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this," Malala said in a statement. NO MOOD TO PLAY Experienced Pakistan batsman Younus Khan says it will be extremely tough for the cricketers to go ahead with today's fourth one-dayer against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi following the killing spree at a Peshawar school. "It is a national tragedy and a barbaric act. Playing the match is going to be very difficult," Younus told Geo Super television. "How do you play a match when your spirit is not in the game? That is our state of mind right now." Younus compared the situation to the one Australia experienced last month when opening batsman Phillip Hughes died after being struck on the head by a bouncer. "It would not be a bad idea to postpone this game as well," said the 37-year-old Younus. An injured student lies on a bed at a hospital following the attack. Photo: AFP GLOBAL REVULSION "By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity," said President Barack Obama, promising that the United States would stand by Pakistan in its struggle against violent extremism. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it was "an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenceless children while they learn". "No cause can justify such brutality. No grievance can excuse such horror," he said at the start of a UN Security Council meeting. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday strongly condemned the killings and said, "Such barbaric and heinous killings have shocked and astonished the people of the whole of world." She also called upon the people of this region to fight together against the international terrorism and communal extremists, reports UNB. Neighbours and regional giants China and India added their condemnation of the attack. "We are deeply shocked and grieved by the attack and condemn in the strongest terms the terrorists," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement quoted by the Xinhua news agency. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the "cowardly terrorist attack" in a tweet, saying it was "a senseless act of unspeakable brutality", writes AFP. "The Taliban have sunk to an all-time depth with this attack," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ra'ad Al Hussein Zeid, adding it was "utterly despicable and incomprehensibly vicious". The assault was "one of the most shocking Taliban attacks in recent memory", said rights group Amnesty International. "This unconscionable Taliban attack is a grave reminder that civilians in northwest Pakistan desperately need effective protection from militant groups," said David Griffiths, deputy director for Asia-Pacific. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared Turkey would observe one day of national mourning today to remember the victims, while French President Francois Hollande described the attack as "vile".
No comments:
Post a Comment