Peshawar, Pakistan: Over 126 children have been brutually killed and 80 others were seriously wounded in a suicide attack by the Tehreek-e-Taliban on an Army-run school in Pakistan’s Peshawar on Tuesday, officials said.
The health minister for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the restive northwestern province where the attack took place, said two teachers were also among the dead.
The militants were ordered to shoot older students, a Taliban spokesman said, adding the attack was revenge for a major military offensive. At least six insurgents wearing military uniforms entered the Army Public School in the city of Peshawar, a source at the school told AFP.
“When we were coming out of class, we saw dead bodies of our friends … some were shot 3 times,” a student said.
According to a statement issued by the Pakistan military, three terrorists have been killed by security forces. The statement also said that some children are still being held hostage by Taliban gunmen.
Sharif Khan, a doctor at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital, told AFP they had received 35 wounded, two of them teachers, as well as the bodies of three students.
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A senior police official confirmed the death toll and warned it was likely to rise, saying a “huge blast” had occurred inside the school.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was retaliation for the army’s continuing operation against militants in the North Waziristan tribal area close to Peshawar.
A senior military official told AFP that troops had cordoned off the area around the school and were hunting down the militants.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister has announced three days mourning over this tragic incident.
The school on Peshawar’s Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System, which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and civilians. Its students range in age from around 10 to 18.
The schools educate the children of both officers and non-commissioned soldiers and army wives often teach in them.
A security official told AFP that hundreds of students and staff were in the school when the attack began, though it was not immediately clear how many are still being held.
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TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani told AFP there were six attackers. “They include target killers and suicide attackers. They have been ordered to shoot the older students but not the children,” he said.
“This attack is a response to Zarb-e-Azab and the killing of Taliban fighters and harassing their families.” Zarb-e-Azb is the official name for the army’s offensive against strongholds of the Taliban and other militants in North Waziristan.
The offensive has killed more than 1,600 militants, according to an AFP tally. The military has hailed the operation as a major success in disrupting Taliban militancy.
The semi-autonomous tribal areas that border Afghanistan have for years been a hideout for Islamist militants of all stripes – including Al Qaeda and the homegrown TTP as well as foreign fighters such as Uzbeks and Uighurs.
