A group of heavily-armed Arabic speaking Taliban suicide attackers stormed an army-run school in the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan killing at least 126 people including school children and teachers and taken hundreds more hostage. Official sources said that so far 124 students, one female teacher and one army personnel were killed in the attack. At least 122 others have been injured. Eyewitnesses told local media that the militants went from classroom-to-classroom shooting indiscriminately at the shocked students. About 500 students and teachers were believed to be inside at the time of attack.
While there are no confirmed reports on the number of militants who entered the school premises, recent updates now suggest that some of them might have fled the school premises they were holding ransom. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said a group of 8-10 suicide attackers wearing paramilitary Frontier Corps uniforms entered Army Public School on Warsak Road around 10.30 am and started indiscriminate firing. The numbers could not immediately be confirmed and it was unclear if hostages were still inside the building.
Dawn newspaper reports that sources in the security agencies have told them that the militants are suspected to have cut through barbed fences around the school and fled. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman claimed that its six suicide bombers attacked army school, saying it was a revenge for the army's operation against militants in the North Waziristan tribal area close to Peshawar. We want them to feel our pain, the spokesman said. Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has left for Peshawar.
India has condemned the terror attack in an army school in Pakistan. In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said, it is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings – young school children. He said, his heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also condemned the terrorist attack. In a tweet, Mr Singh said, the dastardly and inhuman attack exposes the real face of terrorism. Mr Singh said, his sympathies are with the families of the children who got killed by the terrorists.
