Iran Strongly Condemns Terrorist Attack on Pakistani University

Condemning the attack, Jaberi Ansari stressed that Iran considers such terrorist moves to serve the inauspicious interests of the enemies of the Pakistani nation and the Muslim world.

Following the 2014 Peshawar attack, teachers in Pakistan were given permission to carry arms to work.

Pakistani officials say the death toll from a brazen attack on a university in the country’s northwest has risen to 19, with several people wounded.

“Anyone wishing to pay their respects to those who lost their lives can sign our condolence book”.

CHARSADDA, Pakistan/ISLAMABAD, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Stuck with 15 of his students on a third floor balcony of a campus building as gunmen came up the stairs, university director Mohammad Shakil urged Pakistani police arriving at the scene to toss him up a gun so he could shoot back.

The ISPR chief said that as many as 52 security personnel were present on the campus when the attack began. However the main Taliban organization denied any involvement.

The assault bore a chilling resemblance to a 2014 massacre at a school in nearby Peshawar which shocked the nation and prompted an escalation of a national crackdown on extremism.

The attack on a university in north-west Pakistan on Wednesday was masterminded by a Taliban leader in Afghanistan, the Pakistan army said on Saturday.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was quoted on the website of the Daily Pakistan as saying in a statement: “We are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland”.

On the same day, Umar Mansoor, commander of a Taliban faction, claimed that it was his fighters who launched the attacks, citing the university’s aid in preparing students to join the army and government as the reason. It seems that terrorists gnawing at the civilian government in Islamabad are specially targeting schools and colleges which show their backward obscurantism which opposes education dear to modernisation and empowerment.

“One of the attackers was receiving phone calls on an Afghan mobile number”, General Bajwa told reporters.

Army spokesman Asim Bajwa released details of Pakistan’s investigation into the attack Thursday.

Strongly condemning Wednesday’s terrorist attack on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, a US State Department spokesman also backed the efforts to build a stable and prosperous Pakistan.

Most of the victims died at a hostel for young men where security forces also cornered the four attackers.

“In its response to this latest tragedy, the Pakistani authorities must do everything in their power to protect civilians, while respecting human rights and worldwide humanitarian law”, Amnesty said.

The rampage threatened to shatter the sense of security growing in the troubled region a year after the Peshawar attack, which left more than 150 people dead – mostly children.