19 killed in university attack in Pakistan

A suicide bomber killed at least 10 people yesterday in a rush-hour attack on a market on the outskirts of the Pakistani city of Peshawar, officials said.

The dead included two female students, a senior faculty member and four guards, said Fakhr-i-Alam, the senior government official. The injured students were taken to District Headquarters Hospital in Charsadda, and an emergency has been declared in all hospitals in the district.

Wednesday’s attack came on the death anniversary of the university’s namesake, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Bacha Khan, a pacifist and who led non-violent campaigns against British colonial rule.

Meanwhile, according to the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), a contingent of Pakistan army also reached the University to control the situation.

Scores of security forces have been deployed in the area following the explosion, local media reported, adding the death toll is likely to increase.

The attackers then entered a dormitory for male students and opened fire, Ali said.

Gunmen have attacked a university in northwest Pakistan with reports of security forces battling it out with the assailants inside the building.

More than 3,000 students and 600 visitors attending a poetry event were inside the university at the time of the attack, according to Pakistan’s Geo News.

Police and military personnel arriving at the scene were heard exchanging gunfire with attackers in the university’s surrounding area.

Deputy Inspector General Saeed Wazir said: “All students have been evacuated from the hostels, but militants are still hiding in different parts of the university and some students and staff are stuck inside”.

Armed with heavy ammunition the group attacked the university.

Local television footage shows troops enter the building as students and professors rush out.

Speaking to DawnNews via telephone, a woman inside the university says intense firing is underway.

He said the huge blast left vehicles in flames.

Security officials said from three to six gunmen stormed the school, but a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban called reporters in Peshawar to claim responsibility for the attack and to say that four of their men were involved in the campus attack.

The attack comes a little over a year after Taliban gunmen killed 134 students at a military-run school in nearby Peshawar.