Children among 126 dead in Taliban attack on Pakistan military school
Baku, December 16з AZERTAC
Pakistani Taliban militants stormed an army-run school on Tuesday and killed 126 people, including at least 84 children, shooting some in the head, while hundreds of teachers and students were trapped inside the building, officials said.
Pakistani security forces mounted a rescue operation at the school in Peshawar, the capital of northeastern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Witnesses reported hearing several loud blasts and gunfire nearly five hours after the siege began as the Pakistani army and paramilitary units went from building to building searching for gunmen who were believed still to be hiding in the compound, reportedly wearing suicide vests, military officials said.
State-run Radio Pakistan said that 126 people were killed. Earlier reports had put the death toll at 104, including the 84 students, all of whom were believed to be younger than 14. Teachers and one member of the security forces were also reported killed.More than 80 others were wounded, some critically, said hospital officials, who pleaded with the public for blood donations.
Children in school uniforms fled the besieged campus, some escorted by Pakistani security forces. Television images showed bloodied students being loaded into ambulances.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived in Peshawar to oversee the military operation. An army spokesman said that security forces had cleared three of four buildings on the campus and “confined” attackers to the last building.
You live in a country of perennial victims and people who want to empathize with the terrorists. You have given up. You have surrendered. You are defeated.
“One of my classmates was dead,” he said. “As the army personnel rescued us and ushered us out, I saw many injured too.”
Some of the injured were taken to Combined Military Hospital 10 minutes away, while others were brought to Lady Reading Hospital.
“Many are in the operation theater are now in critical condition, undergoing treatment,” said Ejaz Khan, a Lady Reading Hospital official.
