Pakistan university attack group leader threatens more terror

Pakistani activists shout slogans against the attack.

“We consider these youth studying in non-military educational institutes as our future, they are Muslims and their protection is our responsibility”, he stated.

Pakistani officials say the Pakistan Taliban chief known as Mullah Fazlullah has been orchestrating raids on Pakistan from Afghanistan, where he fled several years ago after a Pakistani army offensive against his stronghold in the Swat Valley.

“It is premature to draw any conclusion as to who may be behind the Charsada university attack before investigations are complete”, Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah said.

Mr Sharif said the country’s resolve to fight against these elements is “getting stronger every day”.

The reason for the conflicting claims by the official spokesman and Mansoor was not immediately clear but has led to speculation of a possible split in the Taliban leadership. The attack also had an unmistakable political dimension for its targeting of peaceful political elements inside ethnic Pashtun society.

On January 20, following the terrorists attack on the university, the young teacher asked his students not to leave the room and take cover.

On a day panic gripped a Pakistani town after shots were heard near a state-run girls’ school, a senior Pakistani Taliban commander released a video warning Islamabad of more terrorist attacks on schools and colleges. The terrorists are “on the run”, he insisted.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reaffirmed that violence against students, teachers and schools can never be justified and that “the right to education for all must be firmly protected”, said U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

“Militants want them [schools] shut down”, provincial education minister Arif Khan told the AFP news agency.

The mastermind of Pakistan’s deadly attack on Bacha Khan University yesterday threatened to target more educational institutions, which he said were “nurseries that produced apostates”.

There’re around 64,000 educational institutions in the province alone, he said, and defended measures already taken.

Many victims received head and chest bullet wounds, said hospital sources, adding some of the injured remained in critical condition and the death toll might further rise. After the Peshawar attack, the government promised to set up a joint Intelligence Directorate, but that has not happened yet.

Speaking in his home village, just after his brother’s funeral, Ashfaq Hussain’s sadness was tinged with frustration. “Afghan government understands that there are no good or bad Taliban, since the terrorists are only pursuing to spread terror”, the statement said, and insisted on joint and bold efforts to combat the menace of terrorism in the region.

Shahzad reported from Islamabad.