Pakistan Observes Day Of Mourning After Taliban Attack On University

Bacha Khan University remains closed and its vice chancellor Fazal-ur-Rahim Marwat said classes would resume Monday.

A spokesman Mohammad Khurasani for the main larger Taliban group in Pakistan disowned the group behind the attack, terming it “un-Islamic”.

DERA ISAMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) – The head of a breakaway Taliban faction behind this week’s attack at a northwestern Pakistani university that killed 21 people, majority students, threatened on Friday to carry out more attacks on schools and universities across the country.

An assistant professor at the Pakistan university that was attacked Wednesday by Taliban militants is being hailed a hero after he died in a shootout trying to protect students.

Earlier on Wednesday, a group of heavily-armed terrorists stormed Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens as the army hunted for any gunmen all day.

The attack began shortly after classes started at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, a town 35 kilometres outside Peshawar, said Deputy Commissioner Tahir Zafar. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. They are loosely allied with the Afghan Taliban who ruled most of Afghanistan until they were overthrown by US-backed military action in 2001.

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Media reports said that they then opened fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels. Lietenant General Asim Bajwa, the Army spokesman, said 18 students and two teachers were killed.

Rana, whose institute tracks militant movement, said the divisions in the Taliban over who carried out Wednesday’s attack probably has more to do with a fear of retribution than a reflection of a deeply divided Taliban.

Armed police officers, some perched on the roofs of buildings, were still deployed at the university campus yesterday, and security forces remained on alert after police foiled a bomb attack at a crowded bus station in Peshawar yesterday morning.

“We are determined that the young generation of Pakistan will not bow down to the terrorists”, PSB director Akhtar Nawaz said.

The special teams conducted operations in Peshawar, Dara Adamkhel, Khyber Agency and other areas to arrest the terrorists involved in the university attack.

Mansoor, who commands a faction based in a nearby tribal district, described the violence as retribution for the army’s harsh crackdown over the past year, calling it a “lesson to the military leadership of Pakistan”.