Rahim said four guards of university and one policeman were killed in attack. “We have sent four suicide attackers and they have killed dozens of people”, said a statement by the group, which is also believed to have been behind the Peshawar school attack. The faction’s leader, Omar Mansoor, was the mastermind of the December 2014 Peshawar school attack.
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But in signs of a split in the fundamentalist movement, spokesman for the main Fazlullah faction Mohammad Khurasani called the attack “un-Islamic”.
The past few days have seen an increase in militancy in the region, including an attack on a checkpoint in Khyber Agency, a region west of Peshawar that borders Afghanistan, where ten people were killed and 36 others injured.
Mr Sharif said the country’s resolve to fight against these elements is “getting stronger every day”. On Tuesday, parents throughout northwestern Pakistan rushed to pull their children out of school after rumors spread through communities that a terrorist attack on a school may be imminent.
Students and university officials paid tribute to the slain academic Wednesday, saying he had been nicknamed “The Protector” even before his death.
The conflicting claims indicated further cracks within the ranks of the Taliban.
Students told of how he opened fire on gunmen as they rampaged across campus, giving the young people time to flee before he was cut down in a hail of bullets..
The country also held a day of mourning for those who died at Bacha Khan university on Wednesday, with residents and officials visiting the homes of victims relatives to pay their respects in the town of Charsadda and villages nearby.
Eighteen bodies have reportedly been taken to the district headquarters in Charsada, with more than 60 injured taken to different hospitals.
Shabir Khan, a lecturer in the English department, said he was about to leave his hostel for the department when firing began.
“We are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland”, he said. It was the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan’s history.
The President said, “I am deeply saddened to learn of the barbaric terrorist attack on Bacha Khan University at Charasada, Pakistan today”.
The attack coincided with the 28th anniversary of Bacha Khan’s death.
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According to The Express Tribune, General Bajwa said that the terrorists were continuously conversing on their mobile phones, two of which they have recovered and collected data from.
