Bacha Khan University attack: Pakistan observes mourning for victims

Omar Mansoor, Peshawar school attack mastermind and a commander of the Hakimullah Mehsud faction of the Tehreek-e- Taliban Pakistani, claimed responsibility for the assault.

The Bacha Khan university remained closed and its vice chancellor Fazal-ur-Rahim Marwat said classes would resume Monday.

“We have 3000 students including 400 girls students, and 600 teachers and staff present in the university campus”, he explained. Mansoor said that instead of targeting professional soldiers, “we will target the nurseries that produce these people”. “We will target and demolish the foundations”, he said. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified but it was similar to previous messages released by the group.

Providing details of the planning of the attack, the military spokesman said the gunmen used public transportation from the Afghan border to reach Mardan city, about 30 kilometres from Charsadda, where they were received by four Pakistani men, now in army custody.

Pakistan vowed to redouble efforts to combat militants after the 2014 Peshawar school attack, lifting a moratorium on the death penalty and intensifying a military offensive in North Waziristan, a tribal region and longtime stronghold of the Taliban and other militants.

Pools of blood and overturned furniture could be seen inside a hostel where the majority of the students died, while in a back alley outside, an old wooden plaque on the wall proclaimed: “Heroes die young”.

Defence and security analyst Talat Masood agreed. On Tuesday, parents throughout northwestern Pakistan rushed to pull their children out of school after rumors spread through communities that a terrorist attack on a school may be imminent.

Fierce firing and at least 10 blasts were heard in the campus following the attack, the reports said.

Cricket legend-turned-politician Imran Khan, who heads the party that rules the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Charsadda is located, said it was impossible to provide police guards at every school or educational center.

Bajwa told a late Wednesday press conference that the security forces had achieved a breakthrough in identifying the attackers and those who planned the attack.