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A10
WORLD NEWSThursday 21 January 2016
Deadly Pakistani school attack raises security questions
RIAZ KHAN
ZARAR KHAN
Associated Press
CHARSADDA, Pakistan (AP)
— Once again, Islamic mili-
tants stormed a school in
northeastern Pakistan in a
deadly attack that lasted
for hours. And once again,
the blood of students and
teachers stained class-
rooms and hallways, raising
questions about whether
security forces are able to
protect the country’s edu-
cational institutions from ex- attack.
tremists.
At least 20 people were
killed and 23 were wound-
ed Wednesday in the as-
sault at Bacha Khan Univer-
sity in Charsadda before
the four gunmen were slain
and the military declared
an end to the siege. Two
teachers were among the
dead, including a chem-
istry professor who was
praised as a hero for shoot-
ing back at the attackers
and allowing some stu-
dents to escape.
The university attack was
grimly reminiscent of the
December 2014 massacre
at an army public school
in nearby Peshawar that
killed 150, mostly children.
A breakaway faction of
the Taliban took responsibil-
ity for the university attack,
although a spokesman for
the larger Taliban organiza-
tion, led by Mullah Fazlullah,
denied having anything to
do with it and called it “un-
Islamic.”The violence shows
how vulnerable schools re-
main in Pakistan, where
extremists have sought to
prevent Western-style edu-
cation, especially for girls.
Malala Yousafzai was
awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize after the teenager
was shot in the head by a

Taliban gunman in 2012 tions, as is the intelligence turned to attacking soft tar- Rana, whose institute
outside her school in the agency, known as the ISI. It gets such as schools. tracks militant movement,
Swat Valley because of her is especially difficult for civil- “We are determined and said the divisions in the Tal-
vocal support for gender ian governments to pene- resolved in our commit- iban over who carried out
equality and education trate that authority and es- ment to wipe out the men- Wednesday’s attack prob-
for girls. She said she was tablish intelligence sharing ace of terrorism from our ably has more to do with a
“heartbroken” by the latest with government-operated homeland,” Prime Minis- fear of retribution than a re-
flection of a deeply divided
Pakistan army Chief Raheel Sharif arrives at a local hospital to meet victims of an attack in Taliban.
Charsadda town, some 35 kilometers (21 miles) outside the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, The backlash that followed
Jan. 20, 2016. Gunmen stormed Bacha Khan University named after the founder of an anti-Taliban the Peshawar attack was
political party in the country’s northwest Wednesday, killing many people, officials said. so severe that it probably
left the Taliban “reluctant
(AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) to take credit, he added,
noting that Afghan security
security forces such as the ter Nawaz Sharif said in a forces joined in operations
Several schools were closed police. statement after the attack. against Pakistani Taliban
last weekend after intelli- “The government is trying A breakaway Taliban fac- hideouts afterward.
gence suggested militants to develop a response but tion led by Khalifa Umar The four militants invad-
were planning an attack, is facing capacity issues,” Mansoor said it had carried ed the campus of Bacha
according to Muhammed Rana said, particularly in out the attack. Khan University shortly af-
Amir Rana, director of the the area of intelligence- But a statement emailed ter classes began for the
private Pakistan Institute for sharing among the power- to news organizations by day in Charsadda, about
Peace Studies. A provincial ful intelligence agencies Muhammad Khorasani, the 35 kilometers (21 miles) out-
government spokesman and the police. spokesman for the Tehrik-e- side Peshawar, said Deputy
said they were closed as The army has been pound- Taliban, the largest Taliban Commissioner Tahir Zafar.
part of a security drill. ing militant hideouts in the group, said: “We disown, Both men and women at-
After the Peshawar attack, tribal areas on the border condemn the attack and tend the school, which has
the government promised with Afghanistan since term it as un-Islamic.” about 3,000 students, said
to set up a joint Intelligence June 2014, disrupting op- After the 2014 Peshawar its vice chancellor, Fazle ur-
Directorate, but that has erations for the Pakistani school massacre, Taliban Rahim Marwat.
not happened yet. Taliban militants. Because militants were united in tak- The university is named for
The military is one of Paki- of that campaign, analysts ing responsibility for the vio- one of Pakistan’s great-
stan’s most powerful institu- say the extremists have lence. est secular leaders, Abdul
Ghaffar Khan, known as
Bacha Khan, who often es-
poused communist philoso-
phy. The attack coincided
with the 28th anniversary
of Bacha Khan’s death on
Jan. 20, 1988.
As police and soldiers
rushed to the scene, the
attackers traded gunfire
with the troops, and several
explosions were heard. The
attackers were later con-
tained inside two univer-
sity blocks where the troops
killed them, the army said.
Among the 18 students and
two teachers who were
slain was Syed Hamid Hus-
sain, a chemistry professor
who witnesses said opened
fire on the gunmen. q