A Pakistani man mourns the death of his son in Peshawar. AFP
Peshawar school horror
- 10.30 am (local time): A group of six Arabic-speaking Taliban attackers, wearing para-military fatigues, enter the Army Public School on Warsak Road through rear gate
- They torch a vehicle and open fire. Two blasts are heard inside the school. Around 500 students and teachers were present.
- The attackers start spraying bullets indiscriminately, going from classroom-to-classroom. TV channels show students fleeing the building.
- Gunmen take several students hostage, using them as human shields to fight Army commandos who cordon off the school compound
- As gunbattle rages on, several explosions are heard
- 6:32pm: Police say attack over, all six militants dead. The final death toll is 141, with majority of victims being students.
3-day mourning in Pak
- PM Nawaz Sharif has announced a three-day countrywide mourning over the Peshawar attack. He made the announcement after arriving in the provincial capital city where he was given a briefing over the situation at the Army Public School.
Modi calls up Sharif, offers all help
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called up his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and expressed India's deepest condolences over the "barbaric killings" at Peshawar. Modi told Sharif India was ready to offer all assistance to Pakistan in this hour of grief, said an official statement. As a mark of solidarity, Modi also appealed to schools across India to observe two-minute silence on Wednesday.
World grieves
- It’s a national tragedy. These are my children and it is my loss... Incidents like these will not weaken our resolve. It's a sheer act of cowardice. The country should unite to combat terrorism. — Nawaz Sharif, pak pm
- It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings — young children. My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today.— Narendra Modi, pm
- By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity — Barack Obama, us president
Rescue workers move the coffin of a student, who was killed during the Taliban attack in Peshawar on Tuesday. REUTERS
Soldiers transport rescued children from the attack site. AP/PTIPeshawar, December 16At least 132 students and nine staff members were killed on Tuesday after Taliban gunmen broke into a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and opened fire in the bloodiest massacre the country has seen for years.
More than eight hours after militants slipped into the heavily guarded compound through a rear entrance, the Army declared the operation to flush them out over, and said all insurgents (6-8 in number) 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.
Wounded children taken to nearby hospitals said most victims died when gunmen, suicide vests strapped to their bodies, entered the compound and opened fire indiscriminately on boys, girls and their teachers.
"One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand," said Shahrukh Khan, 15, who was shot in both legs but survived after hiding under a bench.
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 school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," said spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). "We want them to feel the pain."
As night fell on Peshawar, 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.
At least three explosions were heard inside the high school at the height of the massacre. Outside, as helicopters rumbled overhead, the 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. Corridors in the Combined Military Hospital were lined with dead students, their green-and-yellow school uniform ties peeping out of the white body bags.
Describing it a national tragedy, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rushed to Peshawar while declaring a three-day countrywide mourning. He reiterated his government's resolve to eliminate terrorism saying the operation against militants had entered a decisive phase.
Pakistani Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif cut short his Quetta trip and flew to Peshawar to oversee operations. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan also rushed to Peshawar along with senior party leaders.
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 they were wearing Pakistani military uniforms, some witnesses said.
The incident is a grim reminder of the 2004 siege of a school in Russia's Beslan by Chechen militants which ended in the death of more than 330 people, half of
them children. According to early witness accounts, a group of militants burst into the school as students attended classes and lectures, shooting indiscriminately at both pupils and teachers.
The gunmen, who several students said communicated with each other in a foreign language, managed to slip past the school's tight security because they were wearing Pakistani military uniforms, local media reported.
Pakistanis, used to almost daily militant attacks, were shocked by the scale of the massacre and the loss of so many young lives. It recalled the 2004 siege of a school in Russia's Beslan by Chechen militants which ended in the death of more than 330 people, half of them children.
The Pakistani Taliban have vowed to step up attacks in response to a major army operation against the insurgents in the tribal areas. But despite the crackdown this year, the military has long been accused of being too lenient towards Islamist militants who critics say are used to carry out the army's bidding in places like Kashmir and Afghanistan.
So far the Taliban have targeted security forces, military bases and airports, but attacks on civilian targets with no logistical significance are relatively rare. In September, 2013, however, dozens of people were killed in an attack on a church in Peshawar.
The
assault on a school where officers' children studied could push the
armed forces into a more drastic response, analysts said. In Peshawar,
with the rescue operation still under way, hospitals overflowed with
hundreds of wounded children, teenagers and adults."Classes 8-10 were in a seminar on first aid when students heard gunshots and countless men burst in and opened fire," said Shahrukh Khan, in his mid-teens. — Agencies
(THE TRIBUNE)
