Pakistan’s Bacha Khan University was raided by militants on earlier today during a school ceremony. The attack was planned to ensure maximum casualties.
Security forces went through the campus after the massacre and Mehmood Khan, provincial home minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, announced that at least 19 civilians were killed, along with four terrorists. Unfortunately he expects the number of civilian deaths to increase as the investigation continues.
Earlier an army spokesperson said that 21 civilians were killed.
According to CNN, the university – which is in Charsadda, Peshawar – is less than 25 miles away from where the Pakistan Taliban slayed 145 people, including 132 children, in a school attack in December 2014.
It is currently unclear whether or not the group is at fault for the recent attack. However, several Taliban spokesmen have made conflicting statements.
According to CNN,
Umar Mansoor, said the attack was in retaliation for military operations against the group. Mansoor was also the mastermind behind the December 2014 attack,Pakistan’s DawnNews reported.
But another spokesman, Mohammad Khurrassani, from the Pakistan Taliban’s central organization, disavowed any role.
We “strongly condemn the attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda and disown the attack, saying this is not according to Shariah,” Khurrassani said.
The attack happened around 9:30 am, with attackers climbing “over a back wall under cover of the thick winter fog.”
Gunfire and explosions were heard immediately as students and staff reportedly ran to hide. One student told reporters that he was in class when he first heard the gunfire.
“We saw three terrorists shouting, ‘God is great!’ and rushing towards the stairs of our department,” he explains. “One student jumped out of the classroom through the window. We never saw him get up.”
Syed Hamid Husain, a Chemistry lecturer, reportedly shot back at the gunmen before he was killed.
The majority of victims were male students, and were shot in the head or chest.
