In December 2014, militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar and killed 150 people, a lot of them children.
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The military said it had killed four terrorists.
Once again, Islamic militants stormed a school in northeastern Pakistan in a deadly attack that lasted for hours.
He said the attack was not carried out on the Bacha Khan University’s students but on the entire country.
Pakistan’s Jinnah Institute said in a report released yesterday that the National Action Plan (NAP) helped curb extremist violence a year ago, although targeted attacks against religious minorities spiked in the Muslim nation of some 200 million people.
Taliban leaer Khalifa Umar Mansoor told the news agency his four-man team descended on Bacha Khan University in retaliation for the deaths of scores of militants at the hands of Pakistani security forces. A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle struck a crowded police checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing 11 people in an attack that was also claimed by the Taliban.
But a statement emailed to news organizations by Muhammad Khorasani, the spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the largest Taliban group, said: “We disown, condemn the attack and term it as un-Islamic”.
Police chief Wazir said some of the students had been rescued from their dorms.
Police official Tariq Khan says the assault that began shortly after the university opened on Wednesday morning in the town of Charsadda, located some 35 kilometers (21 miles) outside the city of Peshawar.
According to the Taliban, Mansour directed the December 2014 siege of the Army Public School in Peshawar that left 143 students and several soldiers dead.
A Pakistani military spokesman said troops killed the four attackers and took control of the university.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was “deeply grieved” over the attack, “which has reportedly resulted into the loss of precious human lives and injured many others”, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office read. Pakistan maintains that its militants often find refuge in Afghanistan.
Officials say they have knowledge of the faces and fingerprints of the attackers.
She also called for Pakistani authorities to ensure “that all schools and universities are safe”. I saw two terrorists were firing.
The attack was also “strongly” condemned in the USA where the Obama administration pledged to “stand side-by-side with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism”. The troops were combing the nearby areas, searching for more possible attackers, he said.
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Marwat, the vice chancellor, said security forces alone could not keep students safe, saying it required a move away from an extreme interpretation of Islam. Then we said, ‘Get into the rooms – don’t go out.’ Then the security forces came.
