Bullet holes are seen at the Bacha Khan university in northwest Pakistan's Charsadda on Jan. 20, 2016. At least 22 people were killed and over 40 others injured when an unknown number of gunmen stormed the university in Charsadda district of Pakistan's northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday morning, local media reported. (Photo: Xinhua/Umar Qayyum)
At least 22 people were killed and over 40 others injured when an unknown number of gunmen stormed a university in Charsadda district of Pakistans northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday morning, local media reported.
According to local Urdu TV channel ARY, the incident took place when a group of four terrorists armed with suicide jackets, handed grenades and automatic guns sneaked into the campus from the backside of the university at 9:05 a.m. local time.
The terrorists climbed the outside wall of the institution and cut the barbed wires fixed at the wall to jump into the premises.
The terrorists took advantage of extremely low visibility due to dense fog in the area and easily reached the boys hostel located in the backyard of the university.
An eyewitness student said two of the attackers overpowered the security guards before breaking into every hostel room to kill the boys, adding that most of the students present in the hostel ran away through the back side after the attack.
Two of the attackers also attacked the chemistry department of the university and killed a professor before the security forces arrived.
The attack took place on Wednesday morning when a ceremony was being held to observe the 28th death anniversary of the late Bacha Khan, a famous political leader of the country, of whom the university is named after, according to Fazal Raheem, the vice chancellor of the Bacha Khan University
Large contingent of security forces, including army commandos, police and paramilitary forces Frontier Corps, were dispatched to the university shortly after the attack was reported.
Three army helicopters were also deployed to monitor the operation, army said.
Fierce firing and at least 10 blasts were heard in the campus following the attack, the reports said.
Pakistani army spokesman Asim Saleem Bajwa confirmed that the operation had been completed at 12:10 p.m. local time after security forces killed four attackers in the operation launched by the security forces following the attack.
Local Urdu TV channel SAMAA quoted anonymous security sources as saying that the terrorists made a number of phone calls to a number in Afghanistan and took directions during the attack.
According to the reports, all the four attackers aged between 20-25 years appeared to be foreigners, however, their forensic tests are in process to know whether they are Pakistanis or not.
The vice chancellor of the university said the killed include one professor from the chemistry department of the university, two female students, four security guards and a gardener of the university.
All the attack victims were shifted to District Headquarters Hospital in Charsadda as some of the seriously wounded people were referred to the hospital in the neighboring city of Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Many victims received head and chest bullet wounds, said hospital sources, adding some of the injured remained in critical condition and the death toll might further rise.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack and was closely following the development of the incident while on a foreign tour and had directed the security institutions to chase the facilitators and financiers of the attack, said the PM Office in a statement.
The prime minister also announced a nation-wide one-day mourning on Thursday and ordered to hoist the national flag at half-mast.
Pakistan Senate (the upper house) has also passed a resolution to condemn the attack and demanded that the state adopt a zero tolerance policy for all forms of terrorism or extremist groups across the country.
All the educational institutions in Charsadda have been closed until the end of the month in the wake of the attack. A three-day mourning over the attack victims has been announced by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maldives President Abdulla Yameen and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan have also condemned the attack.
Army Chief General Raheel Sharif paid a visit to the attacked university after the conclusion of the operation and also chaired high level security meeting at the Core Headquarters in Peshawar.
A splinter group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the attack on a university.
Local Urdu TV channel Waqt News quoted Umar Mansoor, a commander of the Geedar group of TTP, as saying that they had sent four men for the attack in response to the Pakistani army's ongoing operations against militants in the country's northwest tribal areas.
However, Muhammad Khorasani, spokesman of TTP, denied any involvement in the attack. He told local media Express Tribune in an email that "The TTP and its leader Maulana Fazalullah have nothing to do with the attack."
Wednesday's attack reminded people of a brutal attack launched by Taliban militants on an army-run public school in Peshawar on Dec. 16, 2014, which killed 150 people including 140 school children and 10 staff members.
