A university in the northwest of Pakistan has come under attack by armed militants, and at least seven people have reportedly been killed, with a further 20 injured.
Advertisement
Militants wielding AK-47s used a cover of thick, wintry fog to scale the walls of the Bacha Khan University in the town of Charsadda, about 30km (18 miles) from the city of Peshawar.
Military spokesman Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa said soldiers killed all four assailants.
Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid visited university and told the media that the operation launched by security forces to clear the campus has been completed.
The Pakistan Army has claimed significant breakthrough in probe into Wednesday’s terrorist attack on Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, as death toll rose to 21 with one more wounded succumbing to injuries in hospital on Thursday morning.
However, another spokesman, Mohammad Khurrassani, said the group “strongly condemn[ed] the attack” since it “is not according to Shariah”.
There are reports that fifty severely injured people were admitted to district headquarter hospital, around a dozen of them is still under treatment at the hospital.
Earlier, two terrorists who were firing from inside the university block were shot and killed by the army.
The assault brought memories rushing back of the 2014 atrocity, in which gunmen from the same Taliban faction slaughtered more than 150 people at an army-run school in Peshawar on December 16 that year.
“The Philippines condemns in the strongest terms the attack on Bacha Khan University in Pakistan”.
Omar Mansoor, Peshawar school attack mastermind and a commander of the Hakimullah Mehsud faction of the Tehreek-e- Taliban Pakistani (TTP), claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s assault.
The spokesperson said Pakistan maintains contacts with the Afghan government at various levels to find a solution to different issues related to the security.
The provincial Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has declared three-day mourning starting today.
Two teachers were among the dead, including a chemistry professor who exchanged fire with the attackers, allowing some students to escape.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed a “ruthless” response to the massacre and ordered security forces to hunt those behind Wednesday’s attack.
Advertisement
“My son was grown up, but still he was an innocent kid for me”, said Gula Bibi, the mother of the second killed teacher, Iftikhar Ahmad, who was the university librarian.
