Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in
the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on
Tuesday, killing at least 141 people, mostly
children, before Pakistani officials declared a
military operation to clear the school over.
The overwhelming majority of the victims were
students at the school, which instructs grades
1-10. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
condemned the assault and rushed to Peshawar
to show his support for the victims.
As darkness fell on the area, officials said they
had cleared the school of militants.
A Pakistani military spokesman, Asim Bajwa, said
141 people died in the attack -- 132 children and
nine staff members. He declared the operation
over and said the area had been cleared. An
additional 121 students and three staff members
were wounded.
He said seven attackers, all wearing explosives
vests, all died in the assault. It was not
immediately clear if the militants were all killed
by the soldiers or whether they blew themselves
up, he said. 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.
The horrific attack, claimed by the Tehreek-e-
Taliban, a Pakistani militant group trying to
overthrow the government, sent dozens of
wounded flooding into local hospitals as terrified
parents searched for their children.
"My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a
casket now," wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he
came to the hospital to collect the body of his
14-year-old son Abdullah. "My son was my dream.
My dream has been killed."
The attack began in the morning when the
gunmen entered the school and started shooting
at random. Army commandos quickly arrived at
the scene and started exchanging fire with the
gunmen. Students wearing green school uniforms
could be seen fleeing the area on Pakistani
television.
Outside the school, two loud booms of unknown
origin were heard coming from the scene in the
early afternoon, as Pakistani troops battled with
the attackers. Armored personnel carriers were
deployed around the school grounds, and a
Pakistani military helicopter circled overhead.
Pakistani television showed soldiers surrounding
the area and pushing people back. Ambulances
streamed from the area to local hospitals.
The prime minister vowed that the country would
not be cowed by the violence and that the
military would continue with an aggressive
operation launched in June to rout militants from
the North Waziristan tribal area.
"The fight will continue. No one should have any
doubt about it," Sharif said.
Bajwa said that 1,099 students and staff were
registered at the school.
It is part of a network of schools run by the
Pakistani military around the country. The student
body is made up of both children of military
personnel as well as civilians. A government
official, Javed Khan, said most of the students
appeared to be civilians rather than children of
army staff. But analysts said the militants likely
targeted the school because of its military
connections.
"It's a kind of a message that we can also kill
your children," said Pakistani analyst Zahid
Hussain.
One of the wounded students, Abdullah Jamal,
said that he was with a group of 8th, 9th and
10th graders who were getting first-aid
instructions and training with a team of Pakistani
army medics when the violence began for real.
When the shooting started, Jamal, who was shot
in the leg, said nobody knew what was going on
in the first few seconds.
"Then I saw children falling down who were crying
and screaming. I also fell down. I learned later
that I have got a bullet," he said, speaking from
his hospital bed.
Another student, Amir Mateen, said they locked
the door from the inside when they heard the
shooting but gunmen blasted through the door
anyway and opened fire.
In a phone call to reporters, Taliban spokesman
Mohammed Khurasani claimed responsibility for
the attack, saying the suicide bombers carried it
out to avenge the killings of Taliban members at
the hands of Pakistani authorities.
Peshawar has been the target of frequent militant
attacks in the past but has seen a relative lull
recently.
The Pakistani military launched the military
operation in the nearby North Waziristan tribal
area in June, vowing that it would go after all
militant groups that had been operating in the
region. With the launch of the operation, security
officials and civilians feared retribution by
militants but until Tuesday, a widespread
backlash had failed to materialize.
Tuesday's attack calls into question whether the
militants have been crippled by the military or will
be able to regroup. This appeared to be the worst
attack in Pakistan since a 2007 suicide bombing
in the port city of Karachi killed 150 people.
The violence also underscored the vulnerability of
Pakistani schools, which was dramatically
exposed in the attack two years ago on Malala
Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl shot in the head by a
Taliban gunman outside her school in the Swat
Valley for daring to speak up about girls' rights.
She survived, becoming a Nobel Prize laureate
and global advocate for girls' education but out
of security concerns has never returned to
Pakistan.
Militants have also blown up schools in the
northwest.
"I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold
blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is
unfolding before us," said Malala in a statement.
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