Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 141 people, 132 of them children, the military say.
Officials say the attack in the north-western city is
over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all,
according to the army.
Scores of survivors are being treated in hospitals as
frantic parents search for news of their children.
The attack - the Taliban's deadliest in Pakistan - has
been widely condemned.
Describing the attack from his hospital bed Shahrukh Khan, 17, said a gunman had
entered his classroom and opened fire at random.
As he hid under a desk, he saw his friends being shot,
one in the head and one in the chest. Two teachers were also killed.
"It may rise," said Bahramand Khan, director of
information for the chief minister's secretariat, as the army
was launching a final assault on the remaining militants still holding
scores of children hostage. At least 122 others have been injured.
The Pakistani military said four Taliban militants had been killed
at a school they attacked in the city of Peshawar on Tuesday, and that they
were searching for remaining gunmen.
"Remaining clearance in progress," the military said in
a tweet.
Witnesses described how a huge blast shook the Army Public School
in the northwestern city of Peshawar and gunmen went from classroom to
classroom, shooting children.
Distraught parents thronged the city's Lady Reading Hospital in
the wake of the attack, weeping uncontrollably as children's bodies arrived,
their school uniforms drenched in blood.
Irshadah Bibi, 40, whose 12-year-old son was among the dead, beat
her face in grief, throwing herself against an ambulance.
"Oh God, why did you snatch away my son? What is the sin of my child and all these children?" she wept.
"Oh God, why did you snatch away my son? What is the sin of my child and all these children?" she wept.
Militants came in army uniform
The attack began around 10.30 am when a group of at least six
Taliban miltants, reportedly in military uniforms, entered the school.
A spokesperson for a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
said the gunmen had been ordered to shoot older students at the school in the
city of Peshawar.
TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani told AFP there were six attackers.
"They include target killers and suicide attackers. They have been ordered
to shoot the older students but not the children," he said.
"It's a revenge attack for the army offensive in North
Waziristan," he said, referring to an anti-Taliban military offensive that
began in June.
The attack comes as the Pakistani military wages a major offensive
against Taliban and other militants in the tribal area of North Waziristan
Taliban opened fire on children
Mudassar Abbas, a physics laboratory assistant at the school, said
some students were celebrating at a party when the attack began.
"I saw six or seven people walking class-to-class and opening
fire on children," he said. One student said soldiers came to rescue them
during a lull in the firing.
"When we were coming out of the class we saw dead bodies of
our friends lying in the corridors. They were bleeding. Some were shot three
times, some four times," the student said.
"The men entered the rooms one by one and started
indiscriminate firing at the staff and students
Several students escaped through the back gate. One of students
who escaped told Dunya TV that fourth period was in progress when they heard
firing.
"First we didn't know what has happened. But late an army
officer told us to escape through back gate," he said.
Mushtaq Ghani, provincial information minister, said the militants
entered through a graveyard which is adjacent to the school. The school is
close to Saint Mary High School located at the start of Warsak Road which was
also under threat for last couple of days.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif described the attack as a
"national tragedy unleashed by savages". "These were my
children. This is my loss. This is the nation's loss," he said.
Militants chose soft target
The school on Peshawar's Warsak Road is part of the Army Public
Schools and Colleges System, which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children
of military personnel and civilians. Its students are between the 10 and
18 years.
The schools educate the children of both officers and
non-commissioned soldiers and army wives often teach in them.
TTP spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani said the attack was carried
out to avenge Taliban fighters and their families killed in the army's
offensive against militant strongholds in North Waziristan.
More than 1,600 militants have been killed since the launch of
Zarb-e-Azb in June, according to data compiled by AFP from regular military
statements.
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