Taliban claims responsibility for Peshawar attack

At least 126 people were killed when Taliban gunmen stormed a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar taking hundreds of students hostage in the bloodiest insurgent attack in the country in years.

Bahramand Khan, director of information for the regional Chief Minister’s Secretariat, said at least 126 people were killed and 122 wounded. “It may rise,” he said, adding that more than 100 of the dead were school children. A local hospital said the dead and wounded it had seen were aged between 10 and 20 years old.

The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility. Spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani said: “We selected the army’s school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females. We want them to feel the pain.”

It was not clear whether some or all of the children were killed by gunmen, suicide bombs or in the ensuing battle with Pakistani security forces trying to gain control of the building.

The Pakistani Taliban have vowed to step up attacks in response to a major army operation against the insurgents in the tribal areas. Security forces, checkpoints, military bases and airports have so far been targeted. Attacks on civilian targets are relatively rare, but in September, 2013, dozens of people, including children, were killed in an attack on a church, also in Peshawar.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said “those behind the heinous act will not be spared,” and described the attack as a “national tragedy,”. Opposition politician Imran Khan said it was “utter barbarism.”

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh, India’s minister of home affairs, also condemned the attack. “This dastardly & inhuman attack exposes the real face of terrorism,” Singh tweeted.

Peshawar-based journalist, author and terrorism expert Aqeel Yousafzai, says the attack is a big blow for Pakistan’s counter‑terrorism strategy and policies. “The Army public school was not only for Army kids. Most of the kids are civilians kids, and what is worse is that the media reached the school before the rapid response force, the police or military.”

The Taliban’s retaliation for the recent offensive against it was “rapid and huge,” said Yousafzai, and all the more of a shock because “the school is located in very sensitive place surrounded by army check points.”

Counter-terrorism expert Ajay Sahni said that while carrying out attacks, Islamic extremists do not distinguish between children and adults, adding that incidents of terror are on the rise in Pakistan.

“The TTP and the Islamist extremists make no distinction. They do not discriminate in favour of women and children,” he said.
Sahni also stated that acts of terror are steadily on the rise in Pakistan, adding that over 5,000 people have already lost their lives through terrorism in 2014.

“More than 5,000 people have already died in terrorist-related incidents in this year alone. In 2010 more than 11,500 people died in a single year. This is not an exceptional incident,” he added.

Other Islamic militant groups have condemned the attack. “This was carried out by the enemies of Islam. It is open terrorism,” said Hafiz Saeed, the leader of Jamaat ud Dawa, the group blamed for the 2008 attack on Mumbai that left 166 people dead. “These are barbarians operatingunder the name of jihad.”