Pakistan holds day of mourning after university attack

On Tuesday, parents throughout northwestern Pakistan rushed to pull their children out of school after rumors spread through communities that a terrorist attack on a school may be imminent.

Police said the four gunmen who attacked Bacha Khan University in the town of Charsadda were also killed.

“Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is deeply grieved over the sad incident of terrorists’ attack on Bacha Khan University, Charsada, which has reportedly resulted into the loss of precious human lives and injured many others”, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office read.

As the military announced the end of the clearance operation, mass casualties were feared in the attack reminiscent of the deadly December 2014 terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar which left over 140 dead, a lot of them students.

“We are not safe“, Ajun Khan, who lost his only son Asfand in the attack on the Peshawar school, told AFP Wednesday.

Geology student Zahoor Ahmed said Hussain had warned him not to leave the building after the first shots were fired.

. “We wanted to send the message that education will continue”. Reuters/Khuram Parvez Pakistani relatives and residents offer funeral prayers for victims of the Bacha Khan university attack in Charsadda, about 50 kilometres from Peshawar.

The co-ed university is named after Bacha Khan, a Pashtun nationalist leader who was the founder of Pakistan’s Awami National Party.

An AFP reporter saw pools of blood and overturned furniture at the hostel, where security forces cornered the four gunmen.

Two teachers were among the dead, including a chemistry professor who exchanged fire with the attackers, allowing some students to escape.

Pakistani authorities have confirmed that the shooting had been ended by security forces, and that the Taliban has claimed responsibility.

Students and staff at the university told the VOA correspondent at the scene that some of the victims suffered both bullet and stab wounds.

But in signs of a split in the fundamentalist movement, spokesman for the main Fazlullah faction Mohammad Khurasani called the attack “un-Islamic”.

Close up of some of the firing that took out the last two militants.

The assault, which Amnesty International said could be branded a war crime, was also condemned globally, including by India, the European Union and the US. But analysts say many fighters have moved to cities or across the border into Afghanistan, and the insurgent group has continued to carry out attacks.

The strike prompted the military to intensify an ongoing offensive against extremists in the tribal areas, and the government to launch a National Action Plan (NAP) cracking down on extremism.