Heavily-armed Taliban militants stormed the prestigious university in Pakistan’s restive northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province this morning, firing indiscriminately on students and teachers.
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The police and army are exchanging gunfire with the attackers and several explosions have been heard from the area of the university.
A computer science lecturer at the Bacha Khan University in the northwestern Pakistani city of Charsadda, about 21 miles from Peshawar, he had come to work early Wednesday to print out the results of a recent set of examinations.
A Taliban leader, Khalifa Umar Mansoor, claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack in a phone call to The Associated Press from an undisclosed location.
A teacher (L) walks with a pair of crutches following her rescue after a group of militants stormed the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Pakistan, January 20, 2016.
The attack revived painful memories of the Taliban assault on an army-run school in December 2014, in which gunmen killed around 150 people, almost all of them children. Wednesday’s university attack was believed to be retribution for the execution in December of four men convicted of aiding in that attack. In reaction, Pakistani militants with ties to the Afghan Taliban galvanized into a Taliban of their own.
Husain also never missed a game of cricket with the students, he said, adding: “When someone would go to bowl to him, he would joke: “Remember kiddo, I have a pistol”.
Since 2014, Pakistani forces have carried out a major operation there against the Taliban and other extremists.
Prime Minister Sharif, who is in Davos to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF), also telephoned Army Chief General Raheel Sharif and appreciated the swift military action after the terrorist assault. Security officials said the operation against the militants was made hard because of a thick fog that enveloped the campus.
There were about 3,000 students and 600 guests on the campus when the attack took place, Vice Chancellor of the university Dr Fazal Rahim said.
We “strongly condemn the attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda and disown the attack, saying this is not according to Shariah”, Khurrassani said.
DG ISPR said out of 20 martyred, 18 were students and 2 staff members. Five people injured during firing reported. Initial media accounts said 17 people were wounded. The students ran in different directions, he said.
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The Pakistani military said it had deployed helicopters and special forces in addition to regular troops to counter the militants. The troops were combing the nearby areas, searching for more possible attackers, he said.
