Militants kill at least 20 in assault on Pakistani university

The prime minister – who had a telephonic conversation with Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif following the attack – said that the operation against terrorists must continue with full-swing.

Deputy Commissioner Tahir Zafar says the attack began shortly after the university opened in Charsadda town, some 21 miles outside the city of Peshawar.

The attack stirred grim echoes of the horrific 2014 Peshawar school attack that killed more than 150 people, mostly children, and shocked the nation. “I have no idea about what’s going on but I heard one security official talking on the phone to someone and said many people had been killed and injured”. We don’t know if they were suicide bombers or grenades.

“Around 200 students have been safely evacuated from an examination hall in the university”, Provincial Public Health Engineering Minister Shah Farman said.

Four militants were also killed as security forces retaliated, bringing the death toll to 25 in the grisly attack.

He told AFP: “He was holding a pistol in his hand”. “We were told by teachers to leave immediately”.

Last month, as the country marked the anniversary of the school attack, the military claimed “phenomenal successes” in the war and said it had killed around 3,500 insurgents since launching the operation in 2014.

According to sources, students were staging a protest at the time when the gunmen entered the university.

“Any act of terrorism is an attack on humanity and is highly condemnable”. We should look upon development in the tribal belts because they have become the home for terrorists.

Ambulances swarmed to the campus. “My prayers are with the families of all the victims and all those who suffer as a result of extremist violence”.

Some of them held on to others for support. “They have reached at an understanding with Tehrik-e-Taliban”, Malik told a news channel. Its main target is the Pakistani military and the state, which it would like to overthrow and replace with Sharia law.

Speaking after today’s attack, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: “We are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland”.

The past few days have seen an increase in militancy in the region, including an attack on a checkpoint in Khyber Agency, a region west of Peshawar that borders Afghanistan, where 10 people were killed and 36 others injured. Pakistan maintains that its militants often find refuge in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani military said it had deployed helicopters and special forces in addition to regular troops to counter the militants.