PESHAWAR: In one of the worst acts of human savagery, the Pakistani Taliban senselessly slaughtered 126 school children in a brazen terror attack launched by its heavily armed gunmen and suicide bombers on a school in Peshawar city in retaliation to Pakistan Army’s operation against extremists in North Waziristan.
The horrifying attack was carried out by a group of militants who stormed the Army Public School complex in Peshawar at around 10 a.m. Tuesday local time, reports said.
The heartless attackers went on a rampage, massacring the school children, with many being shot in the head and chest from point blank range. The vicious terror strike, state-run Radio Pakistan reported, left 126 students dead and 122 injured. ARY News put the toll at 132.
The attack brought to mind Russia’s Beslan school tragedy in which nearly 400 people were killed in 2004 by Chechen extremists.
Television footage showed the surviving school children shocked and in tears. Some of them had blood on their faces. One of the students was carried away on a stretcher while another leaned onto a security personnel who helped him away.
The injured students writhed in pain, with their white shirts and green sweaters stained with blood. A child who was swathed in bandages was in tears as he narrated the terror attack.
“An army doctor was visiting us teaching us about first aid when attackers came from behind our school and started firing,” he told Dunya Television.
“Our teachers locked the door and we ducked on the floor, but they (militants) broke down the door. Initially they fired in the air and later started killing the students, but left the hall suddenly.
“The attackers had long beards, wore shalwar kameez (traditional baggy clothes) and spoke Arabic.”
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting to topple the government and set up their version of Islamic Sharia, have vowed to step up attacks in response to a major army operation against the insurgents in the tribal areas.
They have targeted security forces, checkpoints, military bases and airports, but todays attack was most audacious.
In September, 2013, dozens of people, including many children, were killed in an attack on a church, also in Peshawar.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who flew down from Islamabad to Peshawar, declared three days of national mourning.
Army chief General Raheel Sharif cancelled his Quetta trip and reached Peshawar. Many of the children were sons and daughters of army personnel.
On Tuesday, eyewitnesses said, over 500 students and teachers were trapped inside the building and some of the wounded lay in the corridors. Many of the students were later evacuated. A school teacher said that around 1,400 to 1,500 students study in the school.
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.
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 at noon, while a few others were taken to safety by the security personnel who responded promptly.
As the day progressed Pakistani army commandoes eliminated all the six assailants.
The Peshawar terror attack comes a day after a hostage crisis in Sydney, which ended with the killing of a pro-ISIS gunman and two hostages.
This was the deadliest incident inside Pakistan since October 2007, when about 139 Pakistanis died and more than 250 others were wounded in an attack near a procession for exiled former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
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