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 132 mostly school children and taken hundreds more hostage. The attack is being seen as one of the worst-ever in Pakistan. Many of the students were the children of military personnel. Most of them would have been aged 16 or under.
Official sources said that so far confirmed that 124 students, one female teacher and one army personnel were killed in the attack. At least 122 others have been injured. A doctor at the local Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar said many of the students were in very bad condition, with head wounds. 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. The BBC reports that the militants appear to have been intent on killing as many students as possible – rather than taking hostages, as initially thought. 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. Thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in militant violence in recent years – but the latest attack has caused unprecedented shock. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has arrived in Peshawar, described the attack as a “national tragedy”. The Pakistani opposition politician and former cricket captain Imran Khan condemned the attack as “utter barbarism”.
India has condemned the terror attack in an army school in Pakistan. President Pranab Mukherjee has expressed deep anguish and strongly condemned the killing of innocent school children and teachers by terrorists in the Army Public School, Peshawar of Pakistan. In his message, Mr Mukherjee said, such heinous acts are against all tenets of humanity. 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.
British Prime Minister David Cameron today condemned the gruesome attack by Taliban militants on an army-run school in Peshawar, Pakistan. Mr Cameron said, the news from Pakistan is deeply shocking and it is horrifying that children are being killed simply for going to school.
