Days after militant attack, Pakistani university reopens

Twenty-one people were killed last Wednesday in an attack at a university campus in Pakistan’s tribal northwest which was claimed by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, barely a year after the massacre at a school in Peshawar that killed more than 150 people.

University staff and students met on Monday, after briefly reopening the campus, to review security as at least 200 students protested outside to demand the government protect them. The protesters also demanded fool proof security for educational institutions in the region so that such happenings could be stopped in future.

Police said rumours of an attack at the Tandlianwala girls’ high school in Faisalabad had spread swiftly, sending teachers and students racing for safety. “We will leave after completing our education”, said an unidentified female student. The decision was taken at a meeting of faculty members that was chaired by the university’s vice chancellor, he said.

A dreaded Taliban leader Omar Mansoor had claimed responsibility for the attack in a video message.

The government memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, says there is intelligence that 13 Taliban fighters recently entered the country from neighboring Afghanistan and were planning suicide attacks on schools across Pakistan.

“They (militants) can not stop us, we will try to face them and continue our studies”, a student who gave his name as Abdullah said.

He said “But soon after it became clear that the state has no intention of acting against private militias kept by Lashkar-e-Taiba (now working as JuD), Jaish-e-Mohammad and Afghan Taliban”. He went on to confirm that authorities suspect the assault on the university was planned and directed by militant groups residing in Afghanistan, adding that one of the organisers had made as many as 10 calls to the attackers on a mobile phone that had an Afghan SIM card.

The Director General Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR) Lt. General Asim Bajwa while briefing the media in Peshawar on January 23 about the Bacha Khan University attack said that four terrorists and their four facilitators were involved in the attack.