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
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.
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.