In the deadliest slaughter of
innocents in Pakistan in years, Taliban
gunmen attacked a military-run school on
Tuesday and killed 141 people — almost all of
them students — before government troops
ended the siege.
The massacre of innocent children horrified a
country already weary of unending terrorist
attacks. Pakistan's teenage Nobel Peace
laureate Malala Yousafzai — herself a survivor
of a Taliban shooting — said she was
"heartbroken" by the bloodshed.
Even Taliban militants in neighbouring
Afghanistan decried the killing spree, calling it
"un-Islamic."
If the Pakistani Taliban extremists had hoped
the attack would cause the government to
ease off its military offensive that began in
June in the country's tribal region, it appeared
to have the opposite effect. Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif pledged to step up the
campaign that — along with US drone strikes
— has targeted the militants.
"The fight will continue. No one should have
any doubt about it," Sharif said. "We will take
account of each and every drop of our
children's blood.
Taliban fighters have struggled to maintain
their potency in the face of the military
operation. They vowed a wave of violence in
response to the operation, but until Tuesday,
there has only been one major attack by a
splinter group near the Pakistan-India border
in November. Analysts said the school siege
showed that even diminished, the militant
group still could inflict horrific carnage.
The rampage at the Army Public School and
College began in the morning when seven
militants scaled a back wall using a ladder,
said Major General Asim Bajwa, a military
spokesperson. When they reached an
auditorium where students had gathered for an
event, they opened fire.
A 14-year-old, Mehran Khan, said about 400
students were in the hall when the gunmen
broke through the doors and started shooting.
They shot one of the teachers in the head and
then set her on fire and shouted "God is
great!" as she screamed, added Khan, who
survived by playing dead.
From there, they went to classrooms and other
parts of the school.
"Their sole purpose, it seems, was to kill those
innocent kids. That's what they did," Bajwa
said. Of the 141 people slain before
government troops ended the assault eight
hours later, 132 were children and nine were
staff members. Another 121 students and
three staff members were wounded.
The seven attackers, wearing vests of
explosives, all died in the eight-hour assault.
It was not immediately clear if they were all
killed by the soldiers or whether they blew
themselves up, he said.
The wounded — some still wearing their green
school blazers — flooded into hospitals as
terrified parents searched for their children. By
evening, funeral services were already being
held for many of the victims as clerics
announced the deaths over mosque
loudspeakers.
The government declared three days of
mourning for what appeared to be Pakistan's
deadliest since a 2007 suicide bombing in the
port city of Karachi killed 150 people.
"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."
One of the wounded students, Abdullah Jamal,
said he was with a group of eighth, ninth and
10th graders who were getting first-aid
instructions and training with a team of army
medics when the violence became real. Panic
broke out when the shooting began.
"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 anyway and opened fire.
Responding to the attack, armoured personnel
carriers were deployed around the school, and
a military helicopter circled overhead.
A little more than 1 000 students and staff
were registered at the school, which is part of
a network run by the military, although the
surrounding area is not heavily fortified. The
student body is made up of both children of
military personnel as well as civilians.
Most of the students appeared to be civilians
rather than children of army staff, said Javed
Khan, a government official. 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.
In a statement to reporters, Taliban
spokesperson Mohammed Khurasani claimed
responsibility for the attack, saying it was
retribution for the military's operation in
nearby North Waziristan, the northwestern
tribal region where the group's fighters largely
have been based.
"We targeted their kids so that they could
know how it feels when they hit our kids,"
Khurasani said. He said the attackers were
advised not to target "underage" children but
did not elaborate on what that meant.
In its offensive, the military said it would go
after all militant groups operating in the
region. Security officials and civilians feared
retribution by militants, but Pakistan has been
relatively calm.
The attack raised the issue of whether this
was the last gasp of a militant group crippled
by a government offensive or whether the
militants could regroup.
Hussain, the Pakistani analyst, called the
attack an "act of desperation."
The violence will throw public support behind
the campaign in North Waziristan, he said. It
also shows that the Pakistani Taliban still
maintains a strong intelligence network and
remains a threat.
The attack drew swift condemnation from
around the world. U.S. President Barack
Obama said the "terrorists have once again
showed their depravity."
US Secretary of State John Kerry added: "The
images are absolutely gut-wrenching: young
children carried away in ambulances, a teacher
burned alive in front of the students, a house
of learning turned into a house of unspeakable
horror."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India,
Pakistan's longtime regional rival, called it "a
senseless act of unspeakable brutality."
"My heart goes out to everyone who lost their
loved ones today. We share their pain & offer
our deepest condolences," Modi said in a
series of tweeted statements.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it
was a "an act of horror and rank cowardice to
attack defenseless children while they learn".
The violence recalled the attack on Malala
Yousafzai, who was 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 to become a global
advocate for girls' education and received her
Nobel Peace Prize last week, but has not
returned to Pakistan in the two years since the
shooting out of security concerns.
"Innocent children in their school have no
place in horror such as this," the 17-year-old
said. "I condemn these atrocious and cowardly
acts."
Santana reported from Islamabad. Associated
Press writers Asif Shahzad in Islamabad,
Munir Ahmed in Peshawar, Ishtiaq Mahsud in
Dera Ismail Khan and Danica Kirka in London
contributed to this report.