Officials say many more were wounded.
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The four militants invaded the campus of Bacha Khan University shortly after classes began for the day in Charsadda, about 35 kilometers (21 miles) outside Peshawar, said Deputy Commissioner Tahir Zafar.
Police said all the four gunmen were killed before they could detonate suicide vests.
The apparent dispute over who was responsible appeared to be a sign of continued infighting in the Pakistani Taleban, as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militant group seeks to gain a foothold in the region by recruiting disaffected fighters.
The President said, “I am deeply saddened to learn of the barbaric terrorist attack on Bacha Khan University at Charasada, Pakistan today”.
One of the victims was 34-year-old chemistry professor Syed Hamid Hussain.
The yesterday raid was claimed by a Pakistani Taliban (a militant organisation) faction but branded “un-Islamic” by the umbrella group’s leadership, who vowed to hunt down those responsible.
A Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December 2014 killed over 150 people, mostly children.
Speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, he said it was in response to a military offensive against extremists in the tribal areas.
Condemning the terrorist attack on a university in Pakistan’s restive northwest, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the perpetrators to be swiftly brought to justice.
But earlier, a Taliban commander in the area said he sent the four attackers to the university.
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“We are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland”, he said. The attack coincided with the 28th anniversary of Bacha Khan’s death on January 20, 1988.
