Jibran Ahmad and Mehreen Zahra-Malik
Reuters
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: At least 132 pupils and nine staff members were killed yesterday 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 back entrance, the army declared the operation to flush them out over, and said all nine insurgents 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, an assault certain to enrage the country’s powerful army.
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. “One terrorist then started shooting her until she stopped making any sound. All around me my friends were lying injured and dead.”
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’s school because the government is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokes-man Muhammad Umar Khorasani. “We want them to feel the pain.”
As the gunfight between the Taliban and Pakistani forces intensified, at least three of the militants blew themselves up, resulting in several charred bodies of bombers and victims.
The corridors of the city’s Combined Military Hospital were lined with dead pupils. One distraught family member was given a wrong body because the faces of many children were badly burnt.
As night fell on Peshawar, a volatile city near the Afghan border, security forces wrapped up an operation that lasted more than eight hours.
Outside, as helicopters rumbled overhead, police struggled to hold back distraught parents trying to break past a security cordon.
The gunmen, who several pupils said communicated with each other in a foreign language, possibly Arabic, managed to slip past the school’s tight security because at least some of them were wearing Pakistani military uniforms.
Pupil Jalal Ahmed, 15, could hardly speak, choking with tears, at one of the hospitals. “We heard someone kicking the back doors. There were gun shots, but our teacher told us to be quiet. Then the men came with big guns.”
Jalal started to cry. Standing next to his bed, his father, Mushtaq Ahmed, said: “He keeps screaming ‘Take me home, take me home, they will come back and kill me’.”
A 9-year-old boy said teachers shepherded his class out through a back door as soon as the shooting began.
“The teacher asked us to recite from the Qur’an quietly. When we came out from the back door, there was a crowd of parents who were crying. When I saw my father, he was also crying,” he said.
Pakistanis, used to almost daily militant attacks, were shocked by the scale of the massacre.
The US, Pakistan’s ally in its fight against Islamist militants operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan, swiftly condemned the attack.
The Pakistani Taliban have vowed to step up attacks in response to a major army operation against the insurgents in the tribal areas. So far the Taliban have targeted mainly security forces, military bases and airports, but attacks on civilian targets are relatively rare.
Army chief Raheel Sharif’s first public remarks reflected rising anger. “These terrorists have struck the heart of the nation. But… we will pursue these monsters and their facilitators until they are eliminated for good.”
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used similarly strong words. “We will take revenge for each and every drop of our children’s blood that was spilt today,” he said.
In India, Pakistan’s long-time rival, Premier Narendra Modi, expressed his shock.
Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, joint winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said she was devastated. “I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold-blooded act of terror in Peshawar,” said Malala, who now lives in central England.
l The South African government has condemned the attacks and extended its condolences to Pakistan, especially the families of the deceased, and the school’s teachers and pupils.
“Deliberate attacks against schools and denying children the right to an education are contraventions of well-established international human rights and humanitarian law, and constitute a crime against humanity,” Department of International Relations and Co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela said.