Pakistan university attack: Dozens of students and teachers killed by militants

Pakistan university attack: Dozens of students and teachers killed by militants

Four Taliban attackers killed after opening fire in classrooms and dormitories at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda 

 

• Militants attack university in Pakistan
• At least 20 believed dead

 

Pakistan university attack: what we know so far

Islamic militants stormed a university campus in Pakistan’s volatile north-west province and shot dead at least 20 students and teachers, murdering many execution-style with bullets to the head, the Telegraph's Philip Sherwell and Mohammad Zubair Khan in Charsadda report:
The latest terrorist attack against a Pakistani educational establishment was conducted just 30 miles from the scene of the Peshawar school massacre when 132 children were killed 13 months ago.
Police put the initial death toll at 21, but there were fears that the number would increase to as many as 40 as they scoured buildings Bacha Khan university in Charsadda where the gunmen conducted their killing spree. 


Officials said that they had killed four gunmen but several others were believed to be on the loose as about 10 attackers were reported to have stormed the campus.
A commander for Tehreek-e-Taliban, commonly known as the Pakistan Taliban, told news agencies that the faction was responsible for the attack and that four suicide attackers were involved.
But, Mohammad Khurasani, the group's main spokesman, denied that the Pakistan Taliban conducted the attack, which he described as “un-Islamic”.
The carnage could have been even worse, it emerged, but for a young chemistry professor killed in the attack who was praised for his heroism by his students.
The academic, named by local media as Syed Hamid Hussain, 34, the head of the chemistry department, used his own gun to fend off the attackers and provide students with cover to escape before he was shot dead.

A man who was injured, in the gun attack on Bacha Khan University, is treated at a hospital in Charsadda, Pakistan 
Zahoor Ahmed, a geology student, said that the professor had warned him not to leave the building after the first shots were fired. Mr Hussain opened fire at the assailants with his pistol, according to several witnesses. Mr Ahmed said:
Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall.
The gunmen scaled the walls of the university grounds under the cover of thick fog at about 10am before entering buildings and opening fire on students and teachers.
The firing lasted several hours, with terrified students and staff taking cover in locked rooms and under desks. The attack was ended after Pakistani special forces surged into the compound.
Pakistani troops arrive at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda  Photo: AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad
Terrified parents rushed to the scene to look for their children as shooting and explosions rang out inside the campus. The distraught father of a female student, Krishma, said:
My daughter called me when the attack started and I rushed to the university - now her mobile is switched off. I have searched in every hospital and not found her.
The university, which has a student roll of 3,000, is named after a Pashtun leader and founder of the fiercely anti-Taliban Awami National Party.
 
An ambulance transports a victim from the attack at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda  Photo: AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad
The militants staged the attack as the university hosted a festival of Pashtun poets with 600 guests to mark the 28th anniversary of Bacha Khan’s death.
Sabir Khan, a student who was evacuated from the university, told The Telegraph:
The gunmen entered from the back gate of the university and started opening doors and firing indiscriminately, the gunmen are holed up behind a wall of the boy’s hostel.
Shaukat Yousafzai, a minister in the provincial government, said that based on preliminary information at least 25-30 were feared to have been killed, but the number could rise. At least 60 people were wounded.
One student told Pakistan’s Channel 24 news that the attackers pretended to be military personnel to trick people into emerging from locked rooms. The student said:
It was a deafening sound, and first we decided to go out and run but upon hearing continuous firing, we shut our room doors. Two terrorists came to my door and shouted, ‘We are army and we are here to rescue you.’ But I didn’t open the door.
After this, they started firing at the door but I lied down on the floor silently waiting till they were gone.