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(Updated)
It is one of the worst school massacres in history. What happened today is difficult to tell and difficult to hear, so we want to warn you now some of the details and video you are about to see is graphic, and may not be suitable for all viewers.
More than 140 children are dead after Taliban fighters in Pakistan stormed into a school, armed with guns and bombs, and began firing.
This video shows the scene shortly after the hostage situation ended and Pakistan military officials moved in. A young man with blood on his shirt, people hugging, trying to console the inconsolable. The parents and family members of those who were killed. Officials say the majority of the dead are between the ages of
12 and 16-years old. Volunteers could be seen carrying coffins from the hospital. A Pakistani military spokesperson called the attack a “ghastly act of cowardice.”
Here’s a look at where this attack took place. Pakistan is bordered by Iran and Afghanistan to the west , while China borders the country in the north and India to the east.
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and today’s attack happened in Peshawar, which is less than a two hour drive northwest of Islamabad. Peshawar is also close to the Afghanistan border — and just a four hour drive from Kabul.
The massacre took place at the army public school, minutes from the airport and city centre. Peshawar is one of Pakistan’s major educational, political and business centres.
The Taliban in Pakistan quickly claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorist group has been trying to overthrow the Pakistani government. The group says today’s violence is revenge for the killings of Taliban members. The United Nations and world leaders like President Obama and Prime Minister Harper are joining the many voices condemning the massacre.
Ambulances and police rushed to the military school after seven gunmen wearing explosive vests burst in this morning, shooting at random. This boy made it out alive and described the horror from a hospital bed.
He says he was taking a chemistry exam when they opened fire on all of the students, killing a two year-old child who was visiting. The horrific details were difficult for the Canadian Prime Minister to fathom: “It is beyond our comprehension why somebody would target children, to do this.”
Others inside say the gunmen went from class to class, shooting some kids one by one, while they beat others.
An officer told reporters the militants “literally set a teacher on fire with gasoline and made the kids watch.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the attack is a global threat: “Wherever you are, those are our children and this is the world’s loss.”
A Taliban spokesman claims the bombers were told only to target the army personnel and not harm the children. But that did not happen.
The U.N. responded today saying it was an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenseless children.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon: “Getting an education is every child’s right. Going to school should not have to be an act of bravery.”
And right now many families are burying their loved ones. One of them, a father, Fazal Khan. He says his 15-year old son was shot in the chest and hand.
Today’s violence comes just weeks after Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Yousafzai nearly died when she was shot by the Taliban in 2012. She’s calling on the world to act: “All those families and all those children who are injured right now and who are suffering through this big trauma. And now it is time that we unite and I call upon the international community, leaders in Pakistan, all political parties and everyone that we should stand up together and fight against terrorism and we should make sure that every child gets a safe and quality education.”
There are more than 100-thousand Canadians of Pakistani descent, living in the GTHA. It is the largest such community in Canada. Hundreds of them have been directly affected by the shootings in Peshawar. We got a sense of their shock, and grief in the wake of the horrendous news, from their homeland.
Basharat Tayyab: “Right now, it’s a shock. It’s an outrage. It’s despair. It’s I don’t know. It’s basically a feeling of helplessness I suppose. I mean, I’m feeling helpless.”
Tayyab could not believe what she saw, when she turned on the television this morning.
The panic. The wounded. The despairing. The dead.
Basharat: “The terrorists are attacking the schools simply because I think they find the schools are the softest targets.”
132 helpless children and nine staff members. No target, could be softer than this.
Jahan Zeb: “Really, I cried. I was unable to control myself.”
Zeb is a researcher in peace studies and conflict resolution at Waterloo University. Peshawar is his home town: “When I was growing, it was the city of flowers. Now it is the city of killing of bloodshed, and people are horrified.”
And he expects that his own family, will not be spared: “I have not been able to make direct contact, but yes, there will be many; which will be immediate family and friends.”
More than a thousand schools in Pakistan have been attacked in the last five years. Most of them, in the northern regions of the country. That has allowed most of Pakistan to view the Taliban as an isolated problem, rather than a national one. This however, could change everything:
Basharat: “I think even if there were some sympathies for the terrorists, those feelings are dying right now.”
Jahan: “This is the significant point which our political leaders in the country, as well as within the region they need to make it the last episode. The last killing. The last shooting. Otherwise, it will divide the country.”
Even the leader of Pakistan’s opposition party, the PTI, expressed condemnation and loathing for those who carried out the attack.
Imran Khan is occasionally depicted as expressing sympathy and support for the outer edges of conservative Muslim faith in Pakistan and has been accused of being “soft” on both the Taliban, and terrorism.
Politics in Pakistan however, is a complicated business, and today Khan was clearly critical of the fundamentalists, saying there is no justification for this, and calling the attack the worst form of barbarism.
