An attack on a Pakistani school by the Taliban yesterday left 132 school children and nine staff dead, and a further 182 people injured, agencies reported.
Most of the surviving students of the military-run school in the north-western town of Peshawar have been evacuated.
Al Jazeera correspondent Assad Hashim analysed the attack as a sign of Tehreek-e-Taliban’s desperation.
He writes: “Tuesday’s attack, which the TTP said in a statement was explicitly ‘in retaliation against’ the military’s ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan, can be seen, perhaps, as a sign of the group’s desperation.”
“Unable to hit high-value government or military targets, the TTP has been reduced to targeting a school, one that is only nominally army-affiliated, as a sign of its ability to hit civilian targets.
“The school itself is a soft target, with relatively low security, even though it is located in a high-security zone of central Peshawar. But by killing scores of children, the TTP is unlikely to win itself much public support, with the backlash from the attack seeing a marked unity amongst Pakistanis in rejecting this form of violence. The indignation of the Pakistani public at this targeting of children seems also to have overridden any fear the TTP was attempting to sow with such a large-scale strike.
“In a country where public support for militancy has often allowed space for the TTP and like-minded groups to operate, this is certainly significant.”
The Taliban issued a statement saying the attack was carried out against the Pakistani military in revenge for attacks on their families.
“We selected the army’s school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. “We want them to feel the pain.”
The BBC’s Shahzeb Jillani in Karachi said the militants appear to have been intent on killing as many students as possible – rather than taking hostages.
Troops surrounded the building and an operation was under way to rescue children still trapped inside, the army said.
Hours into the siege which began around 10am Pakistan local time, three explosions were heard inside the military-run high school, and a Reuters journalist at the scene said he heard heavy gunfire.
Outside, as helicopters rumbled overhead, police struggled to hold back distraught parents who were trying to break past a security cordon and get into the school.
Six Taliban militants who carried out the attack have been reported killed in gun battles with security personnel.
Bahramand Khan, director of information for the regional Chief Minister’s Secretariat, said the death toll may rise. A local hospital said the dead and wounded it had seen were aged between 10 and 20 years old.
It was not clear whether some or all of the children were killed by gunmen, suicide bombs or in the ensuing battle with Pakistani security forces trying to gain control of the building.
The siege was called off around 6:30pm, Pakistan local time.
No less less than fifteen blasts were reported during the operation.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has declared a three day country-wide mourning in the wake of the gruesome attack. Army hits back with 10 airstrikes in Khyber
According to a tweet by DG ISPR Major General Asim Bajwa, Pakistan’s military on actionable intelligence has carried out several raids including 10 airstrikes in Khyber Agency yesterday, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.
Army chief General Raheel Sharif reached Peshawar and vowed to continue the fight against the militants until they are completely eliminated from the country.
Gen Bajwa posted on Twitter that: “our resolve has taken new height. Will continue go after inhuman beasts, their facilitators till their final elimination.”
“They have hit at the heart of the nation, but let me reiterate they can’t in any way diminish the will of this great nation,” the army chief was quoted as saying by the DG ISPR.
The provincial assembly in Punjab has unanimously passed a resolution condemning the Taliban attack in Peshawar, expressing resolve to fight till the elimination of last terrorist.
The lawmakers also expressed solidarity with the armed forces in the resolution, saying the whole nation was standing shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan Army.
Close encounter with death
A teenage survivor of the attack described how he played dead after being shot in both legs by insurgents hunting down students to kill.
Speaking from his bed in the trauma ward of the city’s Lady Reading Hospital, Shahrukh Khan, 16, said he and his classmates were in a careers guidance session in the school auditorium when four gunmen wearing paramilitary uniforms burst in.
“Someone screamed at us to get down and hide below the desks,” he said, adding that the gunmen shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire.
“Then one of them shouted: ‘There are so many children beneath the benches, go and get them’,” Khan told AFP.
“I saw a pair of big black boots coming towards me, this guy was probably hunting for students hiding beneath the benches.”
Khan said he felt searing pain as he was shot in both his legs just below the knee.
He decided to play dead, adding: “I folded my tie and pushed it into my mouth so that I wouldn’t scream.
“The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again.
“My body was shivering. I saw death so close and I will never forget the black boots approaching me – I felt as though it was death that was approaching me.”
The Army Public School is attended by boys and girls from both military and civilian backgrounds.
As his father, a shopkeeper, comforted him in his blood-soaked bed, Khan recalled: “The men left after some time and I stayed there for a few minutes. Then I tried to get up but fell to the ground because of my wounds.
“When I crawled to the next room, it was horrible. I saw the dead body of our office assistant on fire,” he said.
“She was sitting on the chair with blood dripping from her body as she burned.”
It was not immediately clear how the female employee’s body caught fire, though her remains were also later seen by an AFP reporter in a hospital mortuary.
Khan, who said he also saw the body of a soldier who worked at the school, crawled behind a door to hide and then lost consciousness.
“When I woke up I was lying on the hospital bed,” he added.
