Peshawar school attack: Pakistan mourns; PM Nawaz Sharif to convene all-party meet today

Mangalore Today News Network

Peshawar, Dec 17, 2014:  A day after 148 people were killed in a Taliban attack on a school run by the Pakistani Army in Peshawar, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will on Wednesday convene a meeting in the northwestern city near the border with Afghanistan with leaders of all parties represented in the Pakistani Parliament.

 

Children were the majority of the 148 people killed in the gruesome attack condemned by world leaders.

The fatalities included 132 students and nine school employees, military’s director of public information, General Asim Bajwa, had told a press conference yesterday.

Another 122 students were wounded, as well as nine of the soldiers who retook the school from the insurgents.

More than 900 people were inside the compound at the start of the assault, Bajwa said.

Seven Taliban fighters dressed in Army uniforms entered the school through a back door shortly before midday, police spokesperson Seid Wali said.

The attackers hurled grenades and fired burst of gunfire as they went from classroom to classroom, Wali added.

Peshawar school attack

One of the students, a 14-year-old boy, told The Express Tribune that two men burst into his classroom and began shooting indiscriminately.

The Pakistani Army launched an operation to liberate the school, which serves grades 1-10, but progress was slow as the troops had to contend with explosives planted inside by the attackers.

Soldiers eliminated the last of the insurgents by 6:20 pm, authorities said.

After securing the school, the military embarked on a anti-insurgent sweep across Peshawar and the surrounding province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistan’s main Taliban group, known as the TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was in reprisal for the what the militants claimed was the targeting of their families by the military.

A counterinsurgency operation six months ago in the Khyber and North Waziristan areas left more than 1,100 insurgents dead, according to Pakistan’s Army.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called the assault on the school "a national crisis" and declared three days of mourning.

(With IANS inputs)