Pakistan mourns, buries victims from university attack

Mohammad Khurasani. A spokesman for the main Taliban group in Pakistan disowned those behind the university attack, terming it “un-Islamic” and insisted the Pakistani Taliban were not behind it.

They had gathered in the campus for a poetry recital to commemorate the anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Bacha Khan.

Television images showed female students running for their lives and witnesses reported at least two explosions.

The Prime Minister has directed all security agencies to hunt down the patrons and financiers of Charsada terror attack, a Prime Minister’s Office statement said.

Security forces killed all four gunmen during the assault, and said they hoped to identify them “soon”.

Ayat Ibrahim was entering the South Block of the Bacha Khan University on Wednesday morning when she heard the first of the gunshots and huge blasts.

Military spokesman Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa said soldiers killed all four assailants.

He said: “Most of the students and staff were in classes when the firing began”.

Pakistani authorities have cleared a university in the northwest of the country which came under attack by gunmen.

The TTP’s central leadership denied any involvement.

Pakistan Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif called Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and shared investigation details of the attack with him, Bajwa said.

“We need time to clean the campus, make more security arrangement and boost the morale of the students and teachers”, he said.

Doctors said 19 bodies and 14 injured people reached a government hospital in Charsadda, while rescue teams raced from Peshawar, about 20 miles away, and other nearby cities. They were armed with hand grenades and Kalashnikovs.

“I want to tell the terrorists, they can never win, they will lose, we will win, we the followers of peace and not terrorism”, Shah Hussain, father of the caretaker Fakhr-e-Alam, told AFP.

“I saw two terrorists standing on the roof… I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall”. An official statement quoted Sharif as reiterating Pakistan’s resolve “to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland”. One later died in hospital of wounds.

Like our Facebook Page to get more wonderful content from us. Four security guards and a professor were also among the injured. “We sent kids home that day”.

“He would always help the students and he was the one who knew all their secrets… ‘He was referred to by students as ‘The Protector”‘.

According to reports, the university campus and hostels were evacuated and people from surrounding areas were instructed to avoid coming closer to the university.