Pak in deep mourning over Peshawar school attack

Published on:

17 Dec 2014, 12:00 am

A shocked Pakistan today began observing three days of national mourning for the 141 people, mostly children, massacred by the Taliban suicide attackers in horrendous terror attack in northwestern city of Peshawar.

All educational institutions were closed in the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, of which Peshawar is the capital, in the aftermath of the tragedy that has shaken the world.

The national flag was flying at half-mast due to three days of mourning announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

In rest of the country, most of the schools were open where silence was observed during the morning gatherings.

Candle-lit vigils were observed in different cities, including the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, to condemn the attack and express sympathy with the bereaved families.

People from all walks of life united to condemn the attack, as politicians joined hands to stand up against terror.

The burial of the victims started last night and will continue today. A large number of people are expected to attend the funeral prayers.

The terror act had brought condemnation even from the close allies of the Tehreek-e-Taliban who claimed responsibility of the attack.

Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in a statement said that his group sympathised with the victims.

These militants seldom in the past issue a statement over the attacks in Pakistan.

Pakistan Taliban militants led by Mullah Fazlullah consider Mullah Omer, chief of Afghan Taliban, as their supreme leader.

The attack is expected to unite the divisive nation and built pressure on army to wipe out the distinction of "good and bad Taliban", which is believed to be the main cause of militancy in Pakistan and the region.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sharif is chairing a high-level meeting of political and security experts to discuss the strategy to deal with militancy.

At least 141 people, including 132 students, were brutally killed by militants who stormed an army-run school in Peshawar yesterday.

Radio Pakistan reported that the meeting will discuss ways to form a strategy to stop terrorist activities and flush out all terrorists from the country.

It will also review measures to beef up security for all important buildings, education institutions and to protect life and property of the people.

Sharif yesterday said the act of terror would not dent the resolve to commitment of his government to eliminate all terrorists.

He vowed to take revenge of every drop of blood spilled by the rebels.

'Mind struggles to comprehend Pakistan school massacre'

The "mind struggles to comprehend" the massacre of 132 students by the Taliban at a Pakistani Army-run school here, Pakistani dailies said Wednesday, calling for a prompt end to terror.

In an editorial, Dawn described the terror attack as "so horrifying, so shocking and numbing that the mind struggles to comprehend it".

"Helpless school children hunted down methodically and relentlessly by militants determined to kill as many as quickly as possible.

"...the death count seemed to increase by the minute. First a few bodies, dead schoolchildren in bloodied uniforms, then more bodies, and then more and more until the number became so large that even tracking it seemed obscene."

A staggering 148 people, including 132 children, were killed in the audacious attack at the Army Public School Tuesday.

The death of the children will strike a collective psychological blow that the country will take a long time to recover from, the editorial said.

It said that nothing compares to the horror of what took place at the Army Public School. "The militants found the one target in which all the fears of Pakistan could coalesce: young children in school, vulnerable, helpless and whose deaths will strike a collective psychological blow that the country will take a long time to recover from, if ever."

The daily called for focussing on the grieving families of the dead, the injured survivors and the hundreds of other innocent children who witnessed scenes that will haunt them forever.

"Even in a society where violence is depressingly endemic and militant attacks all too common, the sheer scale of attack demands an extraordinary effort by every tier of the state - and society - to help the victims in every way possible."

The editorial asked: "Where was the intelligenceIJ"

"This was a spectacular failure of intelligence in a city, and an area within that city, that ought to have been at the very top of the list in terms of a security blanket."

"Surely army public schools are under high enough risk to have merited some kind of advance planning in case of such an attack. Was that plan in placeIJ Had there been any drills at the school to help the children know what to do in the eventuality of an attackIJ Who was responsible for such planningIJ Most importantly, will lapses be caught, accountability administered and future defences modified accordinglyIJ"

It went on to say that vows to crush militancy in the aftermath of a massive attack are quite meaningless.

Military operations "will amount to little more than fire-fighting unless there's an attempt to attack the ideological roots of militancy and societal reach of militants".

"Perhaps the starting point would be for the state to acknowledge that it does not quite have a plan or strategy as yet to fight militancy in totality."

The News International said in its editorial "Dying Young" that there are no words strong enough to describe the horror of what happened.

"All that is left behind is a deep sense of grief and hollowness as we realise that we are up against a force that lacks humanity and morality and knows only how to inflict pain - pain that for over 100 families will never go away."

"The militants quite clearly intended to kill as many as possible."

It said that the sense of horror reverberating around the country, and the world, is very genuine.

"Certainly, children have never before been targeted in this fashion."

The question to be asked is: how can we make this stopIJ How do we keep our children safeIJ The military operation against the rebels must continue.

"But we need political will and political action to back it, as well as every effort to tackle the root causes that lead to such acts of terrorism."

Pak will not back off from military offensive in NW: Asif

Islamabad: Pakistan has said it will not back off from military offensive against militants in North Waziristan in the aftermath of the terror attack at a school in Peshawar that left 141 people, mostly children, dead.

"We are undeterred, we will not back off," Defense Minister Khwaja Asif told the CNN in a telephonic interview.

"Absolutely. Absolutely. There is absolutely no doubt about it," he said when asked if the Taliban and the jihadist group is the biggest threat to Pakistan.

"The Taliban are extremists, the terrorists. They are the biggest threat to the peace in this region, to peace in Pakistan, to the existence of Pakistan. We don't classify between different groups of Taliban that there are good Taliban and bad Taliban. They are all bad," Asif said.

Pakistan, he asserted, has been on the front line in the war against terrorism and this needs to be recognised by the world, in particular the Western countries.

"At this incident, even the children are dying on the front line in war against terror. These children are mostly the children of our service men, our officers, our soldiers. It's not only that the service men who are dying in this war against terror, it's civilians, their children," he said.

As many as 141 people, nearly all of them school children, were massacred yesterday when heavily armed Taliban suicide bombers stormed an army-run school in Peshawar, firing indiscriminately, leaving another 130 injured.

Asif asserted that the civilian government and the armed forces are on the same page as far as the war against terror is concerned. "There are absolutely no differences there."

Pakistan Army launched its offensive against Taliban and other terrorist organizations in North Waziristan in June, after it tried unsuccessfully for peace settlement with them.

"What happened is a manifestation of our commitment, that the way they have retaliated, that means that we are really hurting them. We are hurting them very, very, especially in North Waziristan, which was called the epicenter of terrorism in this whole region or perhaps in the world," he said.

"So this is evidence that Pakistan army is performing and performing very well. The fact that there's a blowback, the blowback and the horror in wartime Karachi and now today in Peshawar, the contempt speaks of the commitment of our armed forces in fighting terrorism," Asif said.

Responding to questions, he said the sympathy for the Taliban has declined in the past few years.

"Over the last 10 years, there used to be a lot of sympathy for Taliban or for these terrorists in Pakistan, like in 2004-5 or '06. But over the last 3-4 years, this has diminished. Perhaps the sympathizers for Taliban today in Pakistan are past 5 per cent or 6 per cent or 7 per cent or 8 per cent," he said.

"But there was a time when they had huge support in Pakistan but today people realize that this is a menace and this is something which we have to eliminate. There is no sympathy for any Taliban," Asif added.

Malala 'heartbroken' by Pak school attack

london: Nobel Peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai today said she is "heartbroken" by "the senseless and cold blooded" killing of scores of children by Taliban militants at an army-run school in Pakistan.

"I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us. Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this," Malala said in a statement.

As many as 141 people, nearly all of them school children, were massacred when heavily armed Taliban suicide bombers stormed a school in Peshawar, firing indiscriminately, leaving another 130 injured.

"I condemn these atrocious and cowardly acts and stand united with the government and armed forces of Pakistan whose efforts so far to address this horrific event are commendable," she said.

"I, along with millions of others around the world, mourn these children, my brothers and sisters - but we will never be defeated," said Malala.

Seventeen-year-old Malala, who now lives and studies in Birmingham, became a global icon after she was shot in the head by the Taliban in October 2012 for standing up for the right of education to girls in Pakistan.