Today in Peshawar city, in a worst ever bloodshed, at least 84 students were among more than 100 people killed when Taliban militants stormed an army school in Pakistan and opened indiscriminate fire. A group of about 10 suicide attackers wearing paramilitary Frontier Corps uniforms entered Army Public School on Warsak Road and started indiscriminate firing.
20 bodies were in the Lady Reading Hospital ,LRH and 60 in Combined Military Hospital ,CMH, he said. 30 injured have been shifted to LRH and 39 to CMH. One militant blew himself up inside the school building, 2-3 attackers have been killed and 5-6 others are still inside the complex.
A spokesman for a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said gunmen had been ordered to shoot older students at the school in the city of Peshawar.It’s a revenge attack for the army offensive in North Waziristan,, referring to an anti-Taliban military offensive that began in June.
As many as five or six gunmen entered the Army Public School and a gun battle is on to flush them out, as per reports.A Reuters journalist at the scene could hear heavy gunfire from inside the school as soldiers surrounded it. Ambulances were transporting injured children to hospital.
“We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers,” said a school bus driver.Witnesses told TV channel that the gunmen were dressed in army fatigues. A boy dressed in a school uniform told the same channel that he saw his friends lying on the ground. Another boy said his teachers rushed him and his friends out of the school after hearing gunshots.
TV channels showed a Pakistan army helicopter hovering over the school as an armoured vehicle stood outside with armed soldiers roamed outside.
The attack comes as the Pakistani military wages a major offensive against Taliban and other militants in the tribal area of North Waziristan
Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif condemned the militant attack saying, “Those behind the attack will not be spared.”
Mushtaq Ghani, provincial information minister, said the militants entered through a graveyard which is next 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.
Students were taking examination when firing started. They were told by the teacher to lie down on the floor. They remained on floor for about one hour when army soldiers came and told them to go out.
Several students escaped through the back gate. One of students who escaped told 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.
