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Pakistani forces reclaim school after ‘horrific’ Taliban attack kills at least 141 In Pakistan, Taliban massacre of schoolchildren fuels broad outrage
(about 5 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban gunmen stormed an elite army high school Tuesday in a killing spree that claimed at least 141 lives — nearly all students — and turned the streets into a frenzy of grieving, anger and calls to strike back harder against militants. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The bloody siege of an elite army high school Tuesday by Taliban gunmen, which killed at least 141 students and teachers, was an apparent retaliation for a major recent army operation after years of ambivalent policies toward the homegrown Islamist militants.
After a nearly nine-hour battle in Peshawar — in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border — police officials said all seven militants had been killed. The mass targeting of children, in a military zone in the northwestern city of Peshawar, drew condemnation from around the world, as well as from across Pakistan’s political and religious spectrum — a rare display of unity in a country where Islamist violence is often quietly accepted and sometimes defended. The attack was also condemned by Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.
Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, an army spokesman, then gave the latest death toll: 132 students and nine teachers or staff members. The attackers, Bajwa said, sought “to inflict maximum harm” and took no hostages. Some analysts suggested that after years of suicide bombings and attacks on markets, mosques, hotels and military bases, the insurgents had finally gone too far, and that widespread public outrage over this attack might signal a decisive turn in the nation’s — and the government’s — reluctance to fully take on the Taliban.
Hundreds of people were wounded, some seriously. It was possible the death figures could rise amid carnage that brought swift global condemnation. The massacre was the most intimate assault ever against Pakistan’s military, the nation’s most respected and powerful institution. The only comparable incident was in December 2009, when a small group of assailants penetrated army headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and killed more than 30 people praying at an army mosque.
“A house of learning turned into a house of unspeakable horror,” said Secretary of State John F. Kerry in a statement from London. The death toll Tuesday also rivaled one of the highest in Pakistan in recent years, when suicide bombings in 2007 killed about 150 people in Karachi during celebrations to welcome former prime minister Benazir Bhutto back to Pakistan after years in self-exile. Bhutto was assassinated soon after.
Pakistani army convoys drove from the scene even as families wept on the streets or carried plywood coffins to a hospital filled with the dead, many still wearing their green school blazers and sweaters. Yet even when previous attacks have drawn strong condemnation and vows of action from military officials, Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment have remained deeply ambivalent about taking on the domestic Islamist forces and have often been accused of playing a double game in their partnership with the West in the war on terrorism.
The massacre struck at the heart of Pakistan’s military, one of the nation’s most highly respected institutions, which is seen as the guardian of stability in a turbulent region and an important bridge between Pakistan and Western allies such as the United States. One chief reason is that such extremist groups have long acted as proxies in Pakistan’s rivalry with India, an issue that trumps all others for Pakistan’s security leaders and that has long been seen as a far greater threat than Islamist militants. Terrorist attacks are routinely decried as the work of unknown foreign hands.
The school, while open to the public, has deep connections to the armed forces. It is funded by Pakistan’s army and many students are children of military personnel based in Peshawar. Pakistan’s civilian leaders, for their part, have long deferred to the army in security and foreign policy, and they have also been reluctant to act against Islamist violence, for fear of alienating the nation’s deeply religious Muslim masses and organized groups.
In June, Pakistan’s army launched a major operation against Islamist militants in the country’s restive tribal areas. Since then, the number of attacks inside the country has sharply declined, but the Pakistani Taliban had been warning for months that it would retaliate. “Despite this national tragedy, I don’t see any chance of the nation as a whole building an anti-terrorism narrative,” said Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, a veteran Pakistani legislator from the northwest. He noted that a variety of religious and political leaders have “deep sympathy” for the militants. “For now they may tone down their support,” he said, but in time they will “start showing their true colors again.”
The decision to target students brought a wave of anger and disgust from across the world — similar in tone to the outrage after a Taliban gunman shot Pakistan student activist Malala Yousafzai in 2012. The army, however, has always been carefully attuned to public opinion, and Tuesday’s attack provoked a remarkably swift, broad and emphatic outpouring of revulsion and anger. News channels showed grim scenes of dead children in hospital beds, many still wearing green school uniforms, and of weeping mourners carrying hastily made pine coffins out of hospitals in Peshawar.
“I am heartbroken,” the 17-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate said in a statement just hours after the Peshawar attack. “Today is the saddest day of the history of our nation,” said Haniyah Siddiqui, 18, who was shopping in the port city of Karachi. “It is high time to make up our mind to fight terrorists and eliminate them in toto, not just mourning or condemning the tragic incident.”
“But we will never be defeated,” she added. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who rushed to Peshawar, denounced the assault as a “cowardly act” and vowed to maintain military action “until the menace of terrorism is eliminated” from Pakistan. “The nation needs to get united and face terrorism,” he added. “We need unflinching resolve against this plague.”
In a statement, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge the Pakistan military operation in North Waziristan, the heart of the tribal region. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager and Taliban attack survivor who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting girls’ education, said from England that she was “heartbroken” by “these atrocious and cowardly acts” but vowed that even as she and millions mourn the students’ deaths, “we will never be defeated.”
The Taliban said six militants, including three suicide bombers, carried out the assault. The reason for the discrepancy with the Pakistani report, citing seven militants, was not immediately clear. Her denunciation was echoed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the leader of Pakistan’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa Islamist movement, whose followers were blamed for a 2008 terrorist siege on the Indian city of Mumbai. Saeed said the attack was “carried out by the enemies of Islam. It is open terrorism. . . .These are barbarians operating under the name of jihad.”
Meanwhile, the tally of the “dead received” at Lady Reading Hospital showed how the young paid the overwhelming price. Some of the dead were instructors in their 20s and 30s. But they were far outnumbered by student names and ages: 14, 15, 13. Even the Afghan Taliban, which operates separately from the Pakistani group but shares a religious agenda, took the unusual step of indirectly condemning the attack. A statement from spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, “The intentional killing of innocent people, women and children are against the basics of Islam, and this criterion must be considered by every Islamic party and government.”
“My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now,” wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he collected the body of his 14-year-old son Abdullah, according to the Associated Press. “My son was my dream. My dream has been killed.” The Pakistani Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge Pakistan’s sweeping military operation in June in North Waziristan, part of a tribal region that straddles the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The group had been warning for months that it would take revenge.
Pervaiz Khattak, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, said the Taliban attackers started “indiscriminate firing” after entering the school through a back door. Hasan Askari Rizvi, a military analyst, said the attack was “unprecedented,” even in a country that has experienced thousands of terrorist attacks over the past decade. He said the Taliban appears to be growing more desperate as the military operations continue.
The first students targeted were 9th and 10th graders gathered in the auditorium to receive first-aid training from military doctors, police said. “Now they are attacking the soft targets,” Rizvi said.
Muhammad Harris, a 16-year-old student, said he was in a room with 30 students and four teachers when they heard a commotion in the hallway. The students said some of the attackers appeared to be speaking Arabic, which is not a native language of Pakistan. But Mohammad Khorasani, a spokesman for Pakistani Taliban, said the attack was “a gift for those who thought they have crushed us in their so-called military operation in North Waziristan.” He said such opponents were “always wrong about our capabilities. We are still able to carry out major attacks, and today was just the trailer.”
“Our female teacher went outside when we heard the firing and was shot dead,” Harris said. “One attacker was crying, ‘Help me I am injured.’ But he was not and was trying to trap us and shoot us.” In a statement, the group said six militants, including three suicide bombers, carried out the assault. After a gun battle that lasted nearly nine hours, Pakistan police officials said a total of seven militants had been killed.
“Then the army arrived and we were rescued,” he continued, “but I saw all the wounded and dead bodies when coming out.” An army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, said the attackers sought “to inflict maximum harm” and took no hostages. Hundreds of people were also wounded as classrooms erupted in chaos and carnage, with students and teachers shot point-blank.
At the Lady Reading Hospital, 16-year-old Shahrukh Khan said he hid behind a desk as four gunmen entered the auditorium. He watched the gunmen calmly shoot anyone they could find. Then, from behind the desk, he saw two black boots approaching him, he told the AFP news agency. The school, while open to the public, is funded by Pakistan’s army, and many students are children of military personnel based in Peshawar.
Bullets then tore into both his legs below his knee. “My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now,” wailed one father, Tahir Ali, as he collected the body of his 14-year-old son, Abdullah, according to the Associated Press. “My son was my dream. My dream has been killed.”
“I saw death so close and I will never forget the black boots approaching me,” he said. “I felt as though it was death that was approaching me.” Pervaiz Khattak, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the Taliban attackers started “indiscriminate firing” after entering the school through a back door. The first students targeted were gathered in the auditorium to receive first-aid training, police said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who rushed to Peshawar, denounced the school assault as a “cowardly act” and vowed to maintain the military operations against militants “until the menace of terrorism is eliminated from Pakistani soil.” Muhammad Harris, 16, said he was in a room with 30 students and four teachers when they heard commotion in the hall. The students said some of the attackers appeared to be speaking Arabic.
“The nation needs to get united and face terrorism,” he added. “There is no room for any reluctance and we need unflinching resolve against this plague.” “Our female teacher went outside when we heard the firing and was shot dead,” Harris said. “One attacker was crying, ‘Help me, I am injured.’ But he was not and was trying to trap us and shoot us.
President Obama promised to stand by Pakistan — a key ally in the region — after an attack he described as “horrific.” Dozens of relatives, desperate for information about missing students, tried to reach the school on foot but were pushed back by a cordon of military guards as emergency and security vehicles rushed by. Some relatives shouted angrily; others milled in distress.
“By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity,” said a statement from Obama. One man looking for his nephew, an eighth-grader named Walid, said he had searched through the emergency wards and the morgue at Lady Reading Hospital, where many victims of the attack were taken.
In London, Kerry decried the “gut-wrenching” images, including reports of a teacher burned alive in front of students. “I saw all of the patients and all of the dead,” said Hameed Mohammed, 38. “There was no sign of him.”
At the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called it “an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenseless children while they learn.” As darkness fell, families were still waiting at the roadblock and the military school compound was shrouded in fog. From a distance, men with flashlights could be seen, searching slowly from room to room.
Across Pakistan, many residents were glued to televisions, shocked and horrified at the images of bloodied children being ferried — many carried — to overflowing hospitals. Constable reported from Kabul. Aamir Iqbal and Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad and Nisar Mehdi in Karachi contributed to this report.
Ahsam Mukhtar, a student at the school, said he was in a classroom when the assault started.
“Our teacher told us to lie on the ground, but the firing went on and it was very loud.” Mukhtar said in a televised interview. “Then the army came and took us out of the classrooms. In the corridor, I saw dead bodies with bullet injuries in the head. Some had wounds in their arms. I also saw our mathematics teacher lying injured on the floor.”
The attack shattered what had been a period relative calm in Pakistan.
Hanan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistan military analyst, said in an interview the attack was an “unprecedented” even in a country that experienced thousands of terrorists attacks over the past decade.
He said the Taliban appears to be growing more desperate as the Pakistan military operation continues in North Waziristan.
“Now they are attacking the soft targets,” Rizvi said. “This horrendous act of terror shows that the terrorists have weakened after military operation and that’s why less number of attacks but they still have the ability to strike at soft targets.”
Last month, a suicide bombing killed more than 50 people during a military ceremony at the main public crossing between Pakistan and India.
The death toll in Peshawar already has made it among the worst bloodshed at a school in decades.
In September 2004, more than 330 people were killed — nearly half of them children — after Islamist rebels seized control of a school in Beslan in North Ossetia in Russia’s North Caucasus region. Some sources have placed the Beslan death toll higher.
The Peshawar incident also rivals one of the worst death tolls in Pakistan in recent years. In October 2007, about 150 people were killed in Karachi after suicide bombers targeted celebrations welcoming back former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto after years in self-exile.
Aimir Iqbal, Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad, Brian Murphy in Washington and Karen DeYoung in London contributed to this report.