Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, leaving at least 135 people dead, most of them children. Pakistani officials say the attack is now over, with all of the attackers killed, although security forces are still checking for bombs. Scores of survivors are being treated in hospitals as frantic parents search for news of their children. The attack is the deadliest ever by the Taliban in Pakistan. There has been chaos outside hospital units to which casualties were taken, the BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil reports from Peshawar. Bodies have been carried out of hospitals in coffins, escorted by crowds of mourners, some of them visibly distraught. A Taliban spokesman told BBC Urdu that the school had been targeted in response to army operations. Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in a recent military offensive in North Waziristan and the nearby Khyber area. US President Barack Obama condemned the “horrific attack (…) in the strongest possible terms”. Analysis: Aamer Ahmed Khan, BBC News This brutal attack may well be a watershed for a country long accused by the world of treating terrorists as strategic assets. Pakistan’s policy-makers struggling to come to grips with various shades of militants have often cited a “lack of consensus” and “large pockets of sympathy” for religious militants as a major stumbling-block. That is probably why, when army chief Gen Raheel Sharif launched what he called an indiscriminate operation earlier in the year against militant groups in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt, the political response was lukewarm at best. We will get them, was his message, be they Pakistani Taliban, Punjabi Taliban, al-Qaeda and affiliates, or most importantly, the dreaded Haqqani network. But the country’s political leadership chose to remain largely silent. This is very likely to change now. An unnamed military source told Reuters news agency that nine gunmen had been killed while other sources said six. Seven soldiers were wounded, the Reuters source added. First reports spoke of 100 children being killed. However, Pakistan’s APP news agency later said 89 children were among the 135 confirmed dead. It is unclear if the toll includes the attackers. A further 114 people were injured, the agency added.–BBC Online
