Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing 151 people, in the worst attack to hit the country in years. The overwhelming majority of the victims were students at the army public school, which has children and teenagers in grades 1-10. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the assault and rushed to Peshawar to show his support for the victims.
How many students were killed?
The dead included 133 boys, nine staff members and a female teacher. Four attackers blew themselves up and five others were shot dead. A student who escaped the attack said that the terrorists moved from classroom to classroom and carried out the carnage. In all, 151 people were killed and over 250 were injured. Most students were Shiites.
Why did TTP carry out this attack?
The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called it a revenge attack against Operation Zarb-e-Azb. This operation is a joint military offensive being conducted by Pakistani security forces against various militant groups, including , Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jundallah, al-Qaeda, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Haqqani network. Zarb-e-Azb means “sharp and cutting strike”. Azb also refers to the name of the sword belonging to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which he used in the battles of Badr and Uhud. The operation was launched by the Pakistan Armed Forces on June 15, 2014, in North Waziristan.
Is Waziristan a terror nursery?
North Waziristan (part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border) is a tribal region on the Afghanistan border. The US calls this area the “epicenter” of terrorism. That came after successive Taliban attacks on a Pakistan International Airlines flight and Karachi’s international airport. After the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, North Waziristan became a safe haven for foreign militants like Uzbeks and Turks, who fought alongside the fallen Taliban regime. In 2007, militant groups in the area united to form the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which went on an offensive toward Islamabad. After Pakistan’s army flushed them out of the Swat valley and most tribal regions, it resisted US pressure to follow through with a push into North Waziristan, which was also home to the Haqqani network and Gul Bahadur, who were fighting American troops in Afghanistan.
What will happen from now?
The military will want to hit back hard as the Taliban looks for more soft targets such as shopping centres and restaurants affiliated with the armed forces, according to Omar Hamid, head of Asia-Pacific country risk at IHS Inc. “Due to the momentum of events in Syria and Iraq, the number of groups in Pakistan have become more galvanised,” an analyst said. “You can see a trend toward hostage taking and barricade-type situations. It’s a very serious situation,” he said.
Afghan Taliban condemns school attack by Pakistani Taliban
The Afghanistan Taliban have condemned an attack by the Pakistani Taliban on a school in Pakistan that killed 141 people on Tuesday.
"The intentional killing of innocent people, children and women are against the basics of Islam and this criteria has to be considered by every Islamic party and government," Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.
The Pakistani Taliban are separate from but allied to the Afghan Taliban across the border. Both aim to overthrow their own governments and establish an Islamic state.
Attacks in Pakistan in recent years
Islamabad: Pakistan has been gripped by an insurgency for more than a decade, an internal war with the Taliban and other radical groups that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and security personnel since successive governments in Islamabad joined the United States and its allies in a war against al-Qaida, the Taliban and Islamic extremism in 2001. Tuesday's school attack, which took the lives of at least 126 people, was among the worst in a decade, and follows last summer's government offensive against extremist strongholds that came in response to a Taliban attack on Karachi international airport.
2014:
November 2: Taliban suicide bomber kills 60 in attack on a paramilitary checkpoint close to the Wagah borde
June 9: Ten gunmen disguised as police guards attack a terminal at Pakistan's busiest airport with machine guns, killing 13 people during a five-hour siege
June 8: A suicide bomber in the country's southwest killed at least 23 Shiite pilgrims returning from Iran.
2013:
September 22: A twin suicide bomb blast in a Peshawar church kills at least 85 people.
August 17: Heavily armed Taliban fighters blast their way into a Pakistani air force base, leaving two security officers and nine insurgents dead.
June 22: 10 Foreign climbers killed by militants on Nanga Parbat, ninth highest mountain in world.
March 3: Explosion in Karachi kills 45 Shiites outside a mosque.
January 10: Bombing in Shiite area of southern city of Quetta kills 81 people, wounds 120.
2012:
Nov. 22: A Taliban suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim procession in the city of Rawalpindi, near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people.
January 5: Taliban shoot and kill 15 Pakistani frontier police after holding them hostage for more than a year.
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