Peshawar school massacre: Pakistani students recall narrow escapes, carnage in Taliban slaughter !! Sikkim Online Updates : As the world watched in horror, heavily-armed militants of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in a dastardly act of terror, stormed into the Army Public School in Peshawar on Tuesday morning and killed over 140 people, most of them schoolchildren. The death toll is likely to rise. As doctors from Lady Reading Hospital in the city said hospital corridors were lined with dead students their green-and-yellow school uniform ties peeping out of the white body bags, the TTP justified the bloodiest terror attack in Pakistan in years, claiming this to be retaliation against the Army for targeting families of tribesmen. Interviews with witnesses showed most victims were shot in the first hours of the assault when gunmen sprayed the premises with bullets in an indiscriminate massacre. Gunbattle ends in Peshawar: 132 kids among 141 dead in Taliban attack, 7 terrorists killed The school in Peshawar, a Pakistani city on the edge of the countrys turbulent tribal belt, is operated by the army. Although it enrols some civilian students, many of its pupils are children of army officials, the Talibans intended target. The assault began at around 10 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) as a group of nine militants, suicide vests tightly strapped to their bodies, burst into the building, according to witnesses. Some said they were wearing Pakistani army uniforms. Shahrukh Khan, 15, was shot in both legs but survived after hiding under a bench. One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand and she was crying in pain, he said as he lay on a bed in Peshawars Lady Reading Hospital. One terrorist then walked up to her and started shooting her until she stopped making any sound. All around me my friends were lying injured and dead. Khalid Khan, 13, told Reuters he and his class mates were in a first aid lesson in the main hall when two clean-shaven armed men wearing white clothes and black jackets entered the room. Peshawar attacks: If Taliban are Muslims, I am not. If I am a Muslim, Taliban are not They opened fire at the students and then went out. The army doctor and soldiers managed to escape and we locked the doors from inside, he said. But very soon they came, broke the doors and entered and again started firing. He said many tried to hide under their the desks but were shot anyway, adding that there were around 150 students in the hall around the time of the attack. They killed most of my class mates and then I didnt know what happened as I was brought to the hospital, said Khan, breaking down in sobs. Others said the gunmen addressed each other in a language they could only recognise as either Arabic or Farsi - a possible testament to the Talibans network of hundreds of foreign fighters holed up with them in the remote mountains on the Pakistani-Afghan border. Another student, Jalal Ahmed, 15, could hardly speak, choking with tears, as Reuters approached him at one of the hospitals. I am a biochemistry student and I was attending a lecture in our main hall. There are five doors in the hall. After some time we heard someone kicking the back doors. There were gun shots but our teacher told us to be quiet and calmed us down. Then the men came with big guns. Also Read - Peshawar school attack: Modi speaks to Pak PM Sharif Ahmed started to cry. Standing next to his bed, his father, Mushtaq Ahmed, said: He keeps screaming: take me home, take me home, they will come back and kill me. One nine-year-old boy, who asked not to be named because he was too afraid to be identified, said teachers shepherded his class out through a back door as soon as the shooting began. The teacher asked us to recite from the Koran quietly, he said. When we came out from the back door there was a crowd of parents who were crying. When I saw my father he was also crying. Peshawar school attack: Modi speaks to Sharif, says India stands firmly with Pak in fight against terror Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday night spoke to his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif offering his deepest condolences on the dastardly terror attack at a school in Peshawar and said India stands firmly with his country in the fight against terrorism. Giving details of his conversation with Sharif in his Twitter account, Modi appealed to all schools across India to observe two-minute silence tomorrow as a mark of solidarity. Spoke to PM Nawaz Sharif over the telephone. Offered my deepest condolences on the dastardly terror attack in Peshawar, Modi tweeted on Tuesday night.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 05:18:47 +0000