This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/16/pakistan-taliban-peshawar-massacre-attack

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
Pakistan responds to Peshawar school massacre with strikes on Taliban Pakistan responds to Peshawar school massacre with strikes on Taliban
(about 2 hours later)
The Pakistan military has launched massive air strikes in its remote border region against the Taliban in retaliation for the massacre in a Peshawar school on Tuesday morning that left at least 141 dead, 132 of them children. The Pakistan military has taken punitive action against Taliban militants by launching massive air strikes against its border region strongholds in retaliation for the Peshawar school massacre that left 132 children and nine staff dead in one of the worst terrorist incidents in the country’s history.
The attack in Peshawar was one of the most horrific incidents in the country’s troubled history of the last decade, prompting an outcry at home and abroad – mainly because so many children were killed. In an attack that provoked horror and fierce international condemnation, seven members of Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistan Taliban, dressed in army uniform and wearing suicide vests, stormed the Army Public School mid-morning on Tuesday and began their shooting spree.
The assault began on Tuesday morning when seven attackers dressed in army uniform and wearing suicide vests stormed the school, which is attended almost exclusively by the children of army personnel. Firefights with Pakistan commandos continued for about eight hours before the school was cleared. Pakistani security forces said some of the attackers had been killed by commandos and others had blown themselves up.
Witnesses described the attackers shooting students at random and taking others hostage. Firefights with Pakistan commandos continued for four to five hours before the school was cleared and the last of the attackers killed. Pakistan’s major general, Asim Salim, said 960 students and staff were rescued. Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for a ferocious army offensive – named Zarb-e-Azb – that has been underway in tribal areas since the summer and has left an estimated 1,000 militants dead and tens of thousands of people displaced.
The Pakistan Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for a ferocious army offensive – named Zarb-e-Azb - that has been underway in tribal areas since June. “We selected the army’s school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokesman Mohammed Umar Khurasani. “We want them to feel the pain.”
“We selected the army’s school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. “We want them to feel the pain.” The Taliban claimed it had spared the youngest pupils but survivors said the shooting had been indiscriminate.
Pakistan’s army chief of staff, General Raheel Shariff, said in a tweet that “massive air strikes” had been carried out in the Khyber region as the school was being cleared of attackers. The danger over the coming weeks and months is of spiralling violence in an already volatile region as the Pakistan military, which has a well-founded reputation for ruthlessness, seeks revenge for the dead children of military personnel.
The first indication that the response will be harsh came when Pakistan’s chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif, in a tweet, said “massive air strikes” had been carried out against targets in the Khyber region, a tribal agency adjacent to Peshawar.
PM #NawazSharif has arrived in #Peshawar on an emergency visit http://t.co/3JMqrAQXdm pic.twitter.com/7a8sUtF7WPPM #NawazSharif has arrived in #Peshawar on an emergency visit http://t.co/3JMqrAQXdm pic.twitter.com/7a8sUtF7WP
Before leaving the capital of Islamabad for Peshawar, which is close to the Afghanistan border and has long had a reputation for lawlessness and terrorist incidents, Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, described the massacre as “a national tragedy”. The army chief’s first public remarks after the attack reflected rising anger. “These terrorists have struck the heart of the nation,” he said. “But our resolve to tackle this menace has gotten a new lease of life. We will pursue these monsters and their facilitators until they are eliminated for good.”
He added: “The government together with the army has started Zarb-e-Azb and it will continue until the terrorism is rooted out from our land.” Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, vowed a military offensive that began in the summer to eradicate Taliban havens in North Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, would continue “until terrorism is rooted from our land”.
Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas have seen many terrorist incidents, often occurring out of sight of the media. The government declared three days of national mourning. Around the country musicians cancelled concerts, cinemas dropped films and business owners said shops would remain closed.
But the Peshawar massacre has seen regional rivals join to express sympathy and support for the victims. Throughout the day agonising details of the attack emerged from Peshawar’s usually unremarkable military Cantonment area. The seven attackers gained entrance to the school over a wall shared with a graveyard and then began shooting at random, searching out children hiding beneath desks and benches. The school roll was over 1,000; its pupils aged between five and 18. The army said 960 students and staff survived.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, described the attack as cowardly, adding: “It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings – young children in their school.” Pakistan has witnessed many terrorist incidents over the last decade but the deaths of so many children produced an outcry both at home and internationally.
The president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, who is engaged in a struggle with the Afghanistan Taliban, also condemned the massacre, saying “the killing of innocent children is contrary to Islam”. Barack Obama described the attack as heinous, while his secretary of state John Kerry described it as “gut-wrenching” and “an unspeakable horror”. Echoing the Pakistan government and military, Kerry said: “The perpetrators must be brought to justice.”
The Nobel Peace prize-winner, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban two years ago for speaking out in favour of education for girls, said the Peshawar attack had left her heartbroken. David Cameron described it as a dark day for humanity. “There is not a belief system in the world that can justify this appalling act,” the prime minister said.
“Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this.” The massacre saw regional rivals join to express sympathy and support for the victims. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, described the attack as cowardly, adding: “It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings – young children in their school.”
Even the Afghan Taliban condemned the attack as “against Islam”. The president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, who is engaged in a struggle of his own with the Afghan Taliban, also condemned the massacre, saying “the killing of innocent children is contrary to Islam”.
Hundreds of students were in the school when the attack began mid-morning, between 10 and 11am local time. Ali Khan, a police official who works in the district where the school is located, said the attackers jumped into the compound from the roof of a tall van that they had parked near the school. The Nobel peace prize winner, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Pakistan Taliban two years ago for speaking out in favour of education for girls, said: “I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold-blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us. Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this.”
“One of them blew himself up as soon as the guards came to capture them. The others started moving towards classes and the principal’s room. The united front in the region is unlikely to last long before there is a return to mutual suspicion between the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indian governments. Pakistan’s intelligence agency has long played a double-game, with elements at times supporting the Afghanistan Taliban. Adding to the dangerous mix are US drone strikes in Fata, the semi-autonomous region of north-western Pakistan.
“This is an upper middle-class area and most of the children belong to army families.” The stepping-up of military operations in the Pakistan tribal areas looks as if it will coincide with the Afghanistan government confronting the challenge of the Afghanistan Taliban following the full withdrawal of all US and allied combat troops at the end of the month.
A student who was in the school at the time of the attack told local media: “The gunmen entered class by class and shot some kids one by one.” Tehrik-e-Taliban is allied to the Afghanistan Taliban, sharing similar aims regarding the establishment of sharia law and opposition to the US but, unlike the Afghanistan Taliban, regards the Pakistan government as a target.
Commandos arrived at the scene soon after the shooting began. Military helicopter gunships hovered above but were unable to open fire for fear of hitting the hostages. The main Pakistan opposition leader, Imran Khan, announced he was cancelling national protests planned for Thursday. Khan is a leading critic of army behaviour in the tribal areas and has called in the past for negotiations rather than fighting.
Fighting continued for more than five hours after the attack began. Police were struggling to hold back distraught parents trying to break through a cordon to reach the school when there were three loud explosions after 3.30pm.
A police official in Peshawar told the Guardian that 104 children had been killed and 100 injured. “Some of the injured are critical so the death toll could rise,” he said. Later, Salim, the Pakistani general, said that 141 had died – 132 children and nine members of staff.
Dr Abdul Wahab, head of the emergency department at Lady Reading hospital, which made an appeal for blood, said 26 bodies had been brought in, most of them children, and about 100 injured, again mostly children, wounded by bullets or shrapnel.
Wounded student Abdullah Jamal told the Associated Press he was getting first-aid instructions and training with a team of Pakistani army medics when the attack began.
Jamal, who was shot in the leg, said no one knew what was going on in the first few seconds. “Then I saw children falling down who were crying and screaming. I also fell down. I learned later that I have got a bullet,” he said, speaking from his hospital bed.
Waqar-Ullah Khattack, one of four invigilators at an exam for 61 students aged 14-16 in the school, said he and his colleagues told the students to get down on the floor as soon as they heard firing from an AK-47 and blasts from grenades.
Given the number of terror attacks in the city, he said they had been trained for such an eventuality. Less than an hour after hitting the floor, they were led to safety by commandos, walking past the bodies of at least seven children.
“I have no words for this type of terrorism because we are all just too mentally upset,” Khattack said.
Mudassar Abbas, a physics laboratory assistant at the school, said some students were having a celebration party when the attack began.
“I saw six or seven people walking class to class and opening fire on children,” he said.
A student who survived the attack said soldiers came to rescue students during a lull in the firing.
“When we were coming out of the class we saw dead bodies of our friends lying in the corridors. They were bleeding. Some were shot three times, some four times,” the student said.
“The men entered the rooms one by one and started indiscriminate firing at the staff and students.”
Tehreek-e-Taliban is allied to the Afghanistan Taliban, sharing similar aims regarding the establishment of sharia law and opposition to the US but, unlike the Afghanistan Taliban, regards the Pakistan government as a target.
The Pakistan army has been carrying out a major offensive in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, home to Tehreek-e-Taliban, since June, after an attack on the international airport in Karachi. Hundreds have been killed in the FATA and tens of thousands displaced.