Updated: 2.50pm
AT LEAST 21 people died when gunmen armed with grenades and Kalashnikovs attacked a university in Pakistan earlier today, as security forces moved in under thick fog to halt the bloodshed.
The assault was claimed by a Pakistani Taliban faction but branded “un-Islamic” by the umbrella group’s leadership, who vowed to hunt down those responsible.
The number of dead climbed rapidly after armed men stormed the Bacha Khan university in the northwestern town of Charsadda in the latest outrage to hit the militant-infested region.
Police, soldiers and special forces swarmed the university from the ground and the air to try to shut down the assault. Television images showed female students running for their lives and witnesses reported at least two explosions.
“The death toll in the terrorist attack has risen to 21,” regional police chief Saeed Wazir said, with most of the student victims shot dead at a hostel for male students.
“More than 30 others including students, staff and security guards were wounded,” he added.
Wazir said the attackers had “taken advantage of the fog”, adding that visibility was less than 10 metres at the time.
A military spokesman said the four attackers had been killed, two by snipers, though it was not clear if they were included in the toll of 21 given by police.
Umar Mansoor, a commander of the Hakimullah Mehsud faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistani (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Our four suicide attackers carried out the attack on Bacha Khan University today,” said Mansoor.
Security forces believe he was the mastermind behind a similar attack on an army-run school in nearby Peshawar in 2014 that left more than 150 people dead.
The TTP’s central leadership denied any involvement.
“TTP strongly condems today’s attack and disassociates itself completely from this un-Islamic attack,” spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said on Twitter, vowing that the group would bring those behind it to justice.
The denial appeared to indicate continued infighting in the Pakistani Taliban, as the Islamic State group seeks to recruit its disaffected fighters.
A senior security official said the faces of the attackers were recognisable and their fingerprints had been taken, adding: “We hope we will soon identify them.”
One had a mobile phone in his hand connected to Mansoor’s faction, he said.
He said two of the attackers were teenagers while the others were in their early 20s. They were armed with hand grenades and Kalashnikovs.
Teacher fighting back
Students spoke of one hero teacher, Syed Hamid Husain, fighting back against the intruders.
Geology student Zahoor Ahmed said his chemistry lecturer had warned him not to leave the building after the first shots were fired.
“He was holding a pistol in his hand,” he said.
Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall.
Another student told reporters he was in class when he heard gunshots.
We saw three terrorists shouting, ‘Allah is great!’ and rushing towards the stairs of our department.
One student jumped out of the classroom through the window. We never saw him get up.
He also described seeing the chemistry professor holding a pistol and firing at the attackers.
Then we saw him fall down and as the terrorists entered the (registrar’s) office we ran away.
Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain confirmed the lecturer had died.
An emergency services spokesman suggested that other students and teachers had also fired at the gunmen.
“That is why the attackers could not succeed much,” Bilal Faizi said.
Opposition leader Imran Khan told media in Charsadda that ordinary citizens had rushed to the university with guns, prepared to fight the attackers themselves.
Echoes of 2014 massacre
A university security guard said the attackers had scaled a wall to enter the campus, apparently killing a caretaker in a school guesthouse before moving on to the boys’ hostel.
The attack had chilling echoes of the Taliban assault on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014, Pakistan’s deadliest-ever attack. Most of the victims were children.
After a public outcry, the military intensified an offensive in the tribal areas where extremists had previously operated with impunity, and the government launched a crackdown.
Mansoor, the alleged mastermind behind the attack who also claimed today’s assault, vowed in 2014 to continue his “revenge” for the military crackdown.
Pakistani troops and rescue workers gather at the main gate of Bacha Khan University.
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