This speechless act by TTP militants is considered as a black day for the Pakistani nation. This tragic incident has shaked everyone around the world, the whole Nation is observing three-day mourning and gathered for candle light vigil for the victims of a school attacked by the Taliban in Peshawar, Dec 16, 2014.
Several parts of Pakistan also saw people gathering for condemnation, mourning and candlelight vigils Tuesday night to show solidarity with the children and all others affected in the attack that lasted several hours. Most of those killed will likely be laid to rest today.
Dec 16th was indeed the worst day for all of us when the inhumane ruthless cowards attacked a military-run high school attended by more than 1,100 people, many of them children of army personnel, struck at the heart of Pakistan’s military establishment, an assault certain to enrage the country’s powerful army.
Tehreeqe Taliban Militants entered the army public school, Peshawar on Tuesday morning and changed the lives of hundreds of innocent souls. Those young children who only wanted to seek education and have left homes in high hopes turned into dead bodies in blink of an eye. The TTP militants scaled the boundary wall from the adjacent graveyard and started indiscriminate firing while moving towards the classrooms and auditorium. It has created a chaos in the school, children started screaming and crying over the wounds and a large number of students had gathered in the auditorium to get first aid training. The gunmen entered the compound and opened on boys, girls and their teachers.
At least 141 people killed, including 132 children and 9 staff members of the school, were killed when unidentified armed men opened fire on an army-run school in Peshawar on Tuesday. There are 121 injured students and 3 staff members currently admitted at CMH and Lady Reading Hospital.
The provincial information minister Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani said “most of the bodies were received in the Combined Military Hospital and around 30 at the Lady Reading Hospital. Of the injured students, 25 were in critical condition”.
More than eight hours after militants slipped into the heavily guarded compound through a back entrance, the army declared the operation to flush them out over, and said that all nine insurgents had been killed. Moreover, 960 children have been rescued from the school.
The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it revenge for a major military offensive in the region of North Waziritan ““zarb-e-azb” mission by Pakistani Army. 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.”
This awful and heartbreaking terrorist attack in Peshawar has plunged Pakistan into deep mourning. Never has the country seen the kind of callous orchestration of an attack as witnessed yesterday – one whose target was defenseless children in a school.
While schools are closed in parts of the country, a number of educational institutions will remain open and also offer prayers for the victims of the massacre. Government buildings and Pakistani missions world over will have their flags lowered to half-mast for the three days of mourning.
