DAVID ADAMS reports (with BosNewsLife)…
(with BosNewsLife)
More than 140 people – almost all of them children – have reportedly been killed after militants stormed a military school in north-western Pakistan.
Pakistani military have said at least 145 people died in the Peshawar attack, including 132 children and 10 staff members and three soldiers, which was undertaken by members of the Pakistani Taliban. More than 120 others are reported as having been injured in the attack, many with gunshot wounds.
Eyewitnesses described at least seven militants entering classrooms and opening fire, indiscriminately killing the occupants, in what is the group’s deadliest attack in the country. The raid on the school – which caters for some 500 children of military personnel and civilians who were reported as mostly being aged between 10 and 18-years-old – lasted for at least eight hours before the seven gunmen, all wearing explosive vests, were killed.
“We grieve with our dear friends, mums and dads and brothers and sisters. It’s absolutely horrific.”– Sardar Mushtaq Gill, national director of advocacy group Legal Evangelical Association Development (LEAD) |
In a statement, the Pakistani Taliban said Tuesday’s attack was in revenge against the Pakistani army due to its military operations in North Waziristan that began last June. The group is also known for threatening and attacking Christians.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, denounced the assault on the school as a “cowardly act” and vowed to continue the crackdown on militants.
Sardar Mushtaq Gill, national director of advocacy group Legal Evangelical Association Development (LEAD), told BosNewsLife: “We grieve with our dear friends, mums and dads and brothers and sisters. It’s absolutely horrific.”
Mr Gill called on Pakístan’s government to take “serious steps to eradicate terrorism and religious extremism”. “Now is the time to take strong action against those who openly spread…hatred ,extremism and terrorism in the name of religion.”
Bishop Humphrey Peters, the bishop of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), also condemned the attack on the school. “This is an inhuman act and the Christian community stands with the grieved families. All the churches will keep praying for the victims and will visit the families.”
He said Christians throughout the province and FATA should cancel all Christmas celebrations, dinner parties and other holiday programs to show solidarity with the victims of this attack, the majority of whom are Muslim.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has described the attack as an “act of horror and rank cowardice”.
“Getting an education is every child’s right. Going to school should not have to be an act of bravery,” he said.
US President Barack Obama said the US people’s “hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families, and loved ones” and condemned the actions of those who undertook the attack.
“By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity. We stand with the people of Pakistan, and reiterate the commitment of the United States to support the Government of Pakistan in its efforts to combat terrorism and extremism and to promote peace and stability in the region.”
The UN says there were 78 attacks against schools, teachers and schoolchildren reported to it in Pakistan last year, most of them carried out in the province of which Peshawar is the capital.
The attack came just one year after the Pakistani Taliban perpetrated a suicide bombing at of Peshawar’s All Saints Church, which was widely considered the single deadliest attack on Pakistan’s Christian community in the country’s history.
On 22nd September, 2013, two suicide bombers connected to the Pakistani Taliban detonated their bombs outside the gates of All Saints Church.
Christians said the church had just concluded its Sunday service and more than 600 members were exiting the church when the bombs exploded. More than 100 churchgoers were killed in that attack, which the Taliban claimed was revenge for the US drone program in Pakistan.
LEAD’s Gill said the extremism also comes at a time when “Pakistani Christians are under constant persecution” including Asia Bibi, a Christian mother whose final appeal against a death sentence for blasphemy “is pending at the Supreme Court”.
The regional manager for South Asia of advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC) agreed. “”Religious extremism and terrorism continue to tear at the social fabric of Pakistan,” the official, William Stark, told BosNewsLife.
“This latest attack comes as a reminder that extremists in Pakistan, like the Pakistani Taliban, are willing to commit any act of violence to establish their ideology.”
He said his group along with Pakistan’s Christian community has condemned this attack and “offers prayers of condolence for the families affected.”
He complained that over a year has passed since Pakistan’s Christian community “was shattered by the bombing” of All Saints Church.
“Like that incident, the extremists and militants have targeted the innocent and vulnerable. More must be done by Pakistan’s government to secure the safety of its people and end the reign of terror directed by the Taliban.”
