Splinter Taliban group threatens more school attacks

A faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistani (TTP), that claimed responsibility for Bacha Khan University attack, has released a new video vowing to attack schools across the country, calling them “nurseries” for people who challenge Allah’s law.

Abdul Majeed, a photojournalist who visited the scene, said the bodies of students lay in the dorm rooms.

Four terrorists, armed with sub-machine guns, pistols and hand grenades, launched the attack around 8.45 a.m. when the campus was enveloped in thick morning fog.

Pakistan media reports that 50 have been injured in the terror attack and have been shifted to Charsadda District HQ hospital.

As said by the security official, the death toll could reach up to as high as 40 as the army cleared out student hostels and classrooms.

Teacher Mohammad Ishtiaq said he saw five gunmen enter the building he was in and begin firing automatic assault rifles, as students ran in all directions. “Then I saw a bullet hit him”.

Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission called Thursday for a “critical reappraisal” of the military operation, warning that the NAP can not succeed “without a crackdown on institutions and groups that train terrorists or help them otherwise”. Sharif was “grieved over [the] tragic loss”, according to a statement from the military spokesman, Asim Bajwa.

Mr Sharif said the country’s resolve to fight against these elements is “getting stronger every day”. Taliban gunmen stormed a university in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing…

The ISPR director general said that the SIMs they used were Afghan made, adding that a mobile phone kept ringing even after the attacker had been killed.

Islamabad-based analyst Imtiaz Gul said the Charsadda attack showed that the objective of Mansoor’s group is to create instability. Human rights groups say more than 330 death row convicts have been executed since December 2014, although many of them were not found guilty in terrorism cases. His students managed to get away as he single-handedly took on the militants during the assault Wednesday that killed 19 students and another professor and wounded 22.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on January 20 announced to observe three days mourning in the wake of the attack.

Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after the teenager was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 outside her school in the Swat Valley because of her vocal support for gender equality and education for girls.