Peshawar : It was a day that left the world stunned and grieving when heavily-armed Taliban militants Tuesday launched an audacious attack on a school in this Pakistani city, mercilessly slaughtering at least 137 people — an overwhelming majority of them children — in one of the most savage terror strikes in years.
A pall of gloom descended over Pakistan as the terror bloodbath at the Army Public School in Peshawar, capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, left scores of children dead and wounded 245 people. Many suffered serious life threatening injuries.
Geo News, citing authorities of the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) and Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in Peshawar, said at least 137 people died in the carnage.
While 106 bodies were in CMH, 31 were in LRH, the report said.
Earlier, there were conflicting reports about the number of dead. State-run Radio Pakistan said 126 children were killed. ARY News said 129 people were killed, while other media outlets put the toll at 132, most of them children.
Television footage showed heart-rending images of the frightened children in tears, some with blood on their faces, as security forces rushed in to tackle the terrorists who went on a killing spree.
Many of the dead were shot on their head and chest from point blank range.
The terrorists went from classroom to classroom as children quivered in fear beneath desks and chairs.
“We were assembled in an auditorium when terrorists barged in from the backdoor. We were screaming and they started firing at us.
“I hid myself under the table and got hit by a bullet in my leg,” said an injured student.
This attack comes only a day after a hostage crisis in Sydney that ended after the Iran-born assailant was killed.
The Taliban, which in 2012 shot at Malala Yousufzai who went on to share the Nobel Peace Prize this year with India’s Kailash Satyarthi, claimed responsibility for the attack. The terror group called it a revenge attack for the army operations against militants in North Waziristan.
Security forces killed six of the terrorists as they neutralised the attackers.
The Peshawar attack brought to mind Russia’s Beslan school tragedy in which nearly 400 people were killed in 2004 by Chechen extremists.
Frightened and traumatised children recalled the Peshawar horror.
“We were in the auditorium. Suddenly firing started and our teacher asked us to lie down. After one hour, the army came for our rescue,” a visibly shaken student rasped.
Another young student said: “It was the fourth period. We were in our classes. They (the terrorists) were carrying guns in their hands.”
“Our principal told our teacher that the students have to be evacuated. Suddenly we saw army personnel arriving,” he added.
As the terror attack progressed and the security forces encircled the school, a string of bombings took place. Over a dozen bomb blasts rang out as security forces took on the militants.
Eyewitnesses said that over 500 students and teachers were trapped inside the school building. Many of the students were later evacuated.
The students were initially under the impression that it was yet another army drill and the horror sank in only after they saw schoolmates being felled by bullets.
The school teachers apparently tried to shepherd the children to safety. Some were able to flee soon after the attack began, while a few others were taken to safety by the security personnel.
“Just as we rushed out of our class, we saw some of our fellows were lying injured in the corridor. There were six to seven dehshatgard (terrorists),” said Mukhtar, a student.
Another student said: “I lost three of my friends. I am angry and upset.”
It was a day of extreme anxiety for the parents.
An anguished parent asked how the terror act could have taken place.
“This is quite shocking… How could terrorists enter such a building?”
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who rushed to Peshawar, said till terrorism is not brought to an end in Pakistan, such acts will continue to happen.
“This is in retaliation for our military operation against the terrorists,” said Sharif.
His Indian counterpart Narendra Modi termed it “a senseless act of unspeakable brutality”.
“My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today. We share their pain & offer our deepest condolences,” Modi tweeted.
US President Barack Obama, while condemning the attack, said in a statement: “Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families, and loved ones.”
Numbed and horrified by the assault, celebrities from India and Pakistan took to Twitter to condemn the gruesome attack.
Following are the 10 most horrifying attacks by terrorists and gunmen targeting students:
1. Beslan massacre (Sep 1, 2004): 386 killed, over 700 injured. Members of Chechen leader Shamil Basayev’s Riyadhin al-Salihin group took more than 1,200 school children and adults hostage Sep 1, 2004, at School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia. After a three-day standoff with Russian security forces, 386 people were killed, 186 of them children.
2. Bath School disaster (May 18, 1927): 45 killed, 58 injured. Former school board member Andrew Kehoe set off three bombs in Bath township in the US state of Michigan. Kehoe later killed himself and the superintendent by blowing up his own vehicle.
3. Virginia Tech massacre (April 16, 2007): 32 killed, 17 injured. The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting comprising two separate attacks about two hours apart, on the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, US. The perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people before committing suicide. It was the deadliest shooting massacre by a single gunman in US history.
4. Ma’alot massacre (May 15, 1974): 26 killed, 60 injured. On the 26th anniversary of Israeli independence, members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine took a group of 100 high school students hostage while they were on a class trip to Ma’alot in Israel.
5. Erfurt massacre (April 26, 2002): 18 killed, seven injured. Robert Steinhauser, a 19-year-old expelled student of the Gutenburg Gymnasium School in the east German city of Erfurt, went on a shooting spree, killing 17, including a policeman, before killing himself.
6. Dunblane massacre (March 13, 1996): 17 killed. Thomas Hamilton, an unemployed former shopkeeper and Scout leader, walked into Dunblane Primary School near Stirling in Scotland, armed with two 9 mm pistols and two .357 Magnum revolvers. He killed 16 children and a teacher. This tragedy led to the banning of handguns in Britain.
7. University of Texas Clock Tower massacre (Aug 1, 1966): 17 killed, 31 injured. A day after killing his wife and mother, Charles Whitman, an engineering student and former US Marine, pointed a rifle from the observation deck of the University of Texas at Austin’s Tower and went on a 96-minute homicidal rampage before he was shot dead by police.
8. Columbine High School massacre (April 20, 1999): 15 killed, 24 injured. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, stormed Columbine High School at Littleton in the US state of Colorado, and murdered 12 other students aged 14 to 18 as well as a teacher. Both the perpetrators of the attack then committed suicide.
9. The Ecole Polytechnique massacre (December 6, 1989): 15 killed, 14 injured. Claiming that he was “fighting feminism”, 25-year-old Marc Lepine, 25, separated men and women in a classroom of the École Polytechnique at the University of Montreal, Canada, and shot all nine women present, killing six of them. He then moved through the corridors, cafeteria and another classroom, killing in all 14 women. He then took his own life.
10. Cologne school massacre (June 11, 1964): 11 killed, 22 injured. Armed with a flame thrower, a lance and a homebuilt mace, Walter Seifert, 42, who was dismissed from police service after being found to be infected with tubersulosis, entered the Katholische Volksschule (Catholic elementary school) in Cologne, Germany, and opened fire on girls playing in the courtyard. He then knocked in classroom windows with his mace and fired inside. Eight students and two teachers were killed. He then consumed a cyanide pill and died the next day in police custody.
The following are some of the deadliest terror attacks carried out by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) since its inception in 2007:
Sep 2, 2013: Two suicide bomb attacks took place at All Saints Church in Peshawar in which over 80 people were killed and dozens injured. It was the deadliest attack on the Christian minority in Pakistan.
July 1, 2010 : At least 50 people died and 200 were injured when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the Sufi shrine, Data Durbar Complex. This was the biggest attack on a Sufi shrine in Pakistan since 2001.
Aug 19, 2011: A suicide bomber blew himself up in a packed mosque, killing at least 50 worshippers and injuring more than 100 in Pakistan’s tribal belt of Khyber.
June 8, 2014: At least 28 people, including 10 attackers, were killed in an attack on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport. The attack derailed the peace process between the TTP and the Pakistan government.
April 9, 2014: A deadly bomb blast in a busy market on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, killed at least 20 people and injured 100 others.
July 6, 2008: Eighteen policemen and a civilian were killed when a a 30-year old suicide bomber blew himself up near the Lal Masjid mosque in Islamabad. The attack occurred amid tight security, when thousands of Islamic students came to mark the first anniversary of the siege of Lal Masjid by Pakistani troops. About 12,000 students attended the rally and the attack was directed at police, former Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik said.
March 3, 2014: At least 11 people were killed in an attack at a court in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. A judge and several lawyers were reported to be among those killed.
March 13, 2009: Twelve gunmen took over the main building of the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore during a morning parade when 750 unarmed police recruits were present on the compound’s parade ground. Five trainees, two instructors and a passer-by were killed and three of the attackers blew themselves up to avoid arrest.
July 12, 2012: Nine policemen were shot dead by the TTP in an attack on a house in Lahore. The attack was in reaction to the torture of TTP members in different jails, the outfit’s spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in an interview with a private news channel.