Taliban militants storm Peshawar school, 104 killed (84 children)

By artappraiser on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 4:21am |

Live coverage @ dawn.com, updated 2 minutes ago

Terrorists hold 500 students, teachers hostage; 40 injured as operation is ongoing

URL:

http://www.dawn.com/news/1151203/ttp-militants-storm-peshawar-school-104-killed

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PESHAWAR: Taliban militants have entered an army-run school on Warsak road, taking students and teachers hostage.

Five to six terrorists have entered the Army Public School

104 including 84 children killed, scores injured

Firefight, evacuation underway

About 500 students and teachers are believed to be inside

2:11 pm - PM Nawaz leaves for Peshawar

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif leaves for Peshawar to supervise the ongoing operation against Taliban.

"I have decided to proceed to Peshawar and I will supervise the operation my self," PM Nawaz Sharif said in a short statement before his departure to Peshawar.

"These are my children and it is my loss," the premier said.

2:10pm - 104 dead in attack: KP CM

Chief Minister KP Pervez Khattak says 84 children have been killed in the attack.

"The terrorists entered the school wearing FC personnel uniform," he says.

He puts the total death toll at 104. He says 23 bodies have been taken to the LRH, with 60 in CMH.

2:05pm - Army trying to bring situation under control: KP Information Minister

Shah Farman, the KP Minister of Information says there are approximately 80-100 unconfirmed dead.

"The army is trying hard to bring the situation under control," he says. "The operation is currently underway."

"It is unfortunate that schoolchildren were targeted.We need the country to be united and we need justice," he adds [....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 4:28am

more pictures @ Reuters

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 5:31am

Taliban Kill Scores in Attack on Pakistani Military School

By SALMAN MASOOD in Islamabad, New York Times, 29 minutes ago

[....] A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was in retaliation to the military’s offensive against militant hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal region. Pakistani military carried out an offensive, “Operation Zab-e-Azb,” in June and have claimed to have cleared 90 percent of the restive region that has long been a redoubt of local and foreign militants.

Pervez Khattak, the chief minister of the province, said that as many as 100 teenage students have been killed, while 83 were wounded in the attack. Mr. Khattak said the gunmen were wearing the uniforms of a paramilitary force and were armed with suicide vests.

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 5:38am

Peshawar hospital footage by etribune

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 5:56am

List of bodies received from #PeshawarAttack at 1 morgue, most of those killed just 11-16yrs old. pic.twitter.com/PAK4y1xdjl H/T @NavidAhmadKhan
— Sheera Frenkel (@sheeraf) December 16, 2014

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 6:16am

Young teens coldly executed one-by-one in their exam hall:

...Their minds would have been focused on doing the best they could, scoring the highest marks. They did not expect to die.

The assailants who came to kill them scaled a wall adjoining a graveyard. Once inside, they fired in the schoolyard dispersing the students that remained there.

Then, they came to the examination hall.

To save themselves, the students hit the ground, their young bodies aligning with the earth to evade the bullets that sought their bodies. But the killers had come to kill; according to eyewitnesses, there was no hurried or haphazard showering of bullets.

The killers killed one by one, pointing their guns at one child and then another, watching their bodies flinch and fail. Later, when the corpses would be counted, they would number over a hundred....

Details from an exam hall victim, from another dawn.com report:

...Teenage survivor Salman Khan*, who ducked below his desk with classmates when four gunmen burst into their room, described how he played dead after being shot in both legs, stuffing his tie into his mouth to stifle his screams.

“I saw a pair of big black boots coming towards me, this guy was probably hunting for students hiding beneath the benches,” the 16-year-old told AFP from the trauma ward of the city's Lady Reading Hospital.

“The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again,” he said.

“My body was shivering. I saw death so close and I will never forget the black boots approaching me -- I felt as though it was death that was approaching me.“....

by artappraiser on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 11:10pm

We're bad, but the jihadists are worse.

by Aaron Carine on Wed, 12/17/2014 - 8:01am

LOL. That makes me feel good. Well, not 'good', but better, and that's good enough for me.

by anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 12/17/2014 - 10:06am

Ah but it still remains to be seen whether the Pakistani government and a significant segment of the Pakistani populace will finally switch to agreeing with what you say, Aaron.

If you are a Pakistani who is determined to be steadfast in the belief that the U.S. is worse than the jihadists, I have seen from past reading that that can be quite easy, as there are plenty of generic conspiracy theories about India and/or the C.I.A. to go to. And when there is a blatant statement of responsibility as there was here, there's often this rationalization: "this group would not be stupid enough to admit to this, so it must be an India/C.I.A. false flag op."

by artappraiser on Wed, 12/17/2014 - 5:19pm

“We have killed all of the children in the auditorium,” the militant, later identified by the military as Abuzar, told his handler. “What do we do now?”

“Wait for the army to arrive,” came the reply. “Kill them, then blow yourself up.”

from Ismail Kahn's report from Peshawar for The New York Times.

Caption: The bloodied auditorium floor at the Army Public School in Peshawar on Wednesday. The eight-hour rampage by Taliban fighters killed at least 132 children. Credit Fayaz Aziz/Reuters

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/19/2014 - 4:04am

Taliban militants storm Peshawar school, 104 killed (84 children)

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