At least 20 dead in Taliban attack on Pakistan university

In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban killed 140 people, a lot of them children, in a school in Peshawar, just 40 kilometers away from the site of Wednesday’s attack.

A girl prays for the victims of a militant attack on the Bacha Khan University, during a candle light vigil in Peshawar, Pakistan January 20, 2016.

Soldiers were rushed in from the provincial capital, Peshawar, to help police clear the campus while anxious relatives waited for news outside the gates.

President Pranab Mukherjee strongly condemned the terrorist attack on Bacha Khan University in Pakistan, in which at least 20 people were massacred. He also said Mullah Fazlullah, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, had nothing to do with the attack.

The carnage began shortly after the morning’s first classes at Bacha Khan University, with the attackers slipping over a back wall and shooting a security guard before the mass killing started. However, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khurasani denied that the group carried out the attack and called it “un-Islamic”.

“The external university security staff replied all at once, but they looked very professional and they successfully reached the end of the last building”, he said.

Such statements from among the Taleban are not uncommon since the group has many loosely linked factions and is indicative of the deep divisions and splits among the insurgents. At least one security guard also died. So far, one professor killed in the attack has been identified, said Al Jazeera.

“Youth who are studying in non-military institutions, we consider them as builders of the future nation and we consider their safety and protection our duty”, read Khurrassani’s statement.

The siege on the university comes days after some schools closed in Peshawar amid reports of potential terrorist attacks.

The assailants, who reportedly entered campus wearing suicide vests at 9:30 a.m. local time, rampaged classrooms and other public spaces before they were killed. Pakistani forces have been carrying out a major operation against the Taliban and other militants there since 2014. Mansoor said the attack was in retaliation for a military offensive against extremists near the border with Afghanistan.

In addition to the gunfire, the sound of explosions were heard coming from the school in northwestern Pakistan.

More than 2,500 people had gathered at Bacha Khan University that day for exams and a peace concert commemorating the 28th anniversary of the founder’s death.