Pakistan university attacker threatens to target more schools

The attack began shortly after classes started at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, a town 35 kilometers (21 miles) outside Peshawar, said Deputy Commissioner Tahir Zafar.

The attack, claimed by a Taliban faction, is likely to unite the country behind stern action against Islamist militant groups 13 months after a similar rampage on a nearby army-run school killed about 150 students and teachers.

At least 20 people have been killed, including students and a professor, in an attack on a university in northwest Pakistan. Pakistan, which was earlier harping on “good” and “bad” Taliban, must have now realised that in reality no such difference exists.

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.

While Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is doing his best to wipe his slate about the attack on Pathankot, there has been an outrage inside his country.

The Apex Committee reviewed the development and progress made in the investigation of the terror attack on the university in Charsadda, some 50 kms southwest of Peshawar, in a grim reminder of the army school carnage in 2014. “The terrorists were continuously conversing on their mobile phones, two of which we have recovered and collected data from”.

After the attack, Pakistani army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif visited the university and the wounded in hospital.

Four gunmen, all since killed, were involved in Wednesday’s attack, officials said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan A group of militants stormed a university in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, police said, with firing inside the campus still going on and two explosions heard.

The victims, mostly students, were being buried in their ancestral graveyards across the province amid touching scenes.

Officials and witnesses said the assailants took advantage of a thick wintry fog that had blanketed the campus, impairing visibility.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned terrorist attack by armed militants at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, and called for bringing the perpetrators to justice.

In the wake of the 2014 school massacre, teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Peshawar is located, were offered weapons training. “We will continue to target schools and universities in the future”, Mansoor said in the video.

Wednesday’s assault targeted a school named after Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, nicknamed Bacha Khan, a towering secular figure in Pakistani politics who died in 1988.

The attack comes at a time when Pakistan is cracking down on militant outfits, with Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan and Khyber-1 in Khyber Agency seeing consistent success.

Whoever is responsible for this attack showed absolute contempt for life and civilian immunity.