Students killed as gunmen attack Pakistan university
Education in emergencies
Students are rescued from the university by soldiers
Armed militants stormed a university in northwestern Pakistan today, killing at least 19 people and wounding dozens 鈥撎齛听little more than a year after the massacre of 134 students at a听school in the area.
A security official said the death toll could rise to as听high as 40, with at least 51 wounded.
The army said it had concluded operations to clear the campus six hours after the attack began and that four gunmen were dead.
A spokesman for the rescue workers, Bilal Ahmad听Faizi, said 19 bodies had been recovered from Bacha Khan University 鈥 including students,听guards, policemen and at least one professor. Many of the dead were apparently shot in the head execution-style, TV footage showed.
In December 2014,听 at a听military-run school in nearby Peshawar. Pakistan has killed and arrested hundreds of suspected militants under a major crackdown launched after the massacre of the school children at the Army Public School in December 2014.
Several schools had closed early at the weekend around Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, after rumours circulated of a possible assault.
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An injured victim is stretchered from the scene
Attacks on education across the world have been increasing in recent years.听Students, teachers and school buildings were attacked in more than 70 countries between 2009 and 2012 鈥 by armed groups, state soldiers and criminal gangs.
To counteract this, more than 50 countries have now signed the . It commits them to protect education from attack and to use the .
Gordon Brown, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, said: 鈥淥nce again an education establishment has been targeted by terrorists in a deadly crime which violates international law.听Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.
鈥淛ust over a year ago there was outrage in Pakistan and internationally at the loss of lives when terrorists stormed a school.听Now a university is under assault. 听
鈥淚t is wholly unacceptable that schools and colleges are being targeted across the world, from Nigeria to Syria to the Indian subcontinent when they should be seen as safe havens of learning.鈥
Today鈥檚 attack saw the militants use the cover of thick, wintry fog to scale the walls of the university in Charsadda,听northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, before entering听buildings and opening fire on students and teachers in听classrooms and hostels, police said.
The gunmen attacked as the university prepared to host a听poetry recital to commemorate the death听anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a popular ethnic Pashtun听independence activist after whom the university is named.
Vice Chancellor Fazal Rahim told reporters that the听university teaches over 3000 students and was hosting an听additional 600 visitors today for the recital.
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People gather outside a hospital where victims were taken
鈥淎ll students have been evacuated from the hostels but militants are still hiding in different parts of the university and some students and staff are stuck inside,鈥 he said before the firing had stopped, adding that it was unclear how many gunmen were involved.
Television footage showed soldiers entering the campus as ambulances lined up outside the main gate and anxious parents consoled each other.
Shabir Khan, a lecturer in the English department, said he听was about to leave his university housing for the department听when firing began.
鈥淢ost of the students and staff were in classes when the听firing began,鈥 Khan said. 鈥淚 have no idea about what鈥檚 going on听but I heard one security official talking on the phone to听someone and said many people had been killed and injured.鈥
In a statement after today鈥檚 attack,听Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: 鈥淲e are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland.鈥澨
Umar Mansoor, a senior Pakistani Taliban commander involved听in the Peshawar school attack,听claimed responsibility for the Charsadda assault and said it听involved four of his men.听He told Reuters by telephone the university was targeted听because it was a government institution that supported the army.
However, later in the day, official Taliban spokesman听Muhammad Khorasani issued a written statement disassociating the听militants from attack, calling it un-Islamic. It said:听鈥淵outh who are studying in non-military institutions, we听consider them as builders of the future nation and we consider听their safety and protection our duty.鈥
For live updates from local journalists and others in Pakistan, we鈥檝e put together a Twitter list that you can follow:
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