Pakistan militants: Children's massacre was to avenge army strikes
December 17, 2014 -- Updated 1421 GMT (2221 HKT)
The Taliban in Pakistan's terror legacy
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Pakistan lifts moratorium on the death penalty after massacre
- Of the 145 people killed, most were children between ages 12 and 16
- Attackers gunned down students hiding under benches
- "A lot of the children are under the benches. Kill them," an attacker said
Terrorists ambushed the
school in Peshawar on Tuesday, explosives strapped to their bodies, and
burst into an auditorium filled with students taking exams.
They sprayed bullets rapidly, killing 145 people. Of those, 132 were children, authorities said.
In an email, the terror
group warned Muslims to avoid places with military ties, saying it
attacked the school to avenge the deaths of children allegedly killed by
soldiers in tribal areas.
Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school
Map: Peshawar, Pakistan
Dozens of students killed in attack
Students thought Taliban attack was drill
It accused the students
at the army school of "following the path of their fathers and brothers
to take part in the fight against the tribesmen" nationwide.
The Army Public School
and Degree College is home to about 1,100 students and staff, most of
them sons and daughters of army personnel from around Peshawar. The
public school admits children whose parents are in the military, but its
classes are not restricted to future soldiers.
A day after the massacre, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases.
'Under the benches ... kill them'
Student Ahmed Faraz, 14,
recalled the moment the terrorists struck. He was in the auditorium
when about five people burst in through a back door and started firing.
" 'God is great,' " the militants shouted as they roared through the hallways, Ahmed said.
They sought out terrified children.
" 'A lot of the children are under the benches,' " a Pakistan Taliban member said, according to Ahmed. " 'Kill them.' "
The ninth-grader got shot in his left shoulder and lay under a bench.
"My shoulder was peeking out of the bench," Ahmed recalled. "They went into another room, (and when) I ran to the exit, I fell."
Seventh-grader Mohammad
Bilal said he was sitting outside his classroom taking a math test when
the gunfire erupted. He fell into bushes before running to the school's
gates to safety.
Students, teachers recount the horror they saw
Children drenched in blood
Pakistani troops eventually pushed through the buildings, room by room, and confined the attackers to four buildings.
They found children drenched in blood. Some of the bodies lay on top of others.
"Even the children are
dying on the frontline in the war against terror," said Khawaja Asif,
the defense minister. "The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to
carry."
By the time the siege
ended in the evening, military officials said all seven militants were
dead. It's unclear whether they were killed by soldiers or they
detonated their explosives. The casualty tolls don't include the
terrorists.
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The ambush at Army
Public School and Degree College left more than 100 injured, many with
gunshot wounds, according to Mushtaq Ghani, a spokesman for Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province.
It started with a ruse
The nightmare began in
late morning, when a car exploded behind the school. Pakistani
authorities said the blast was a ruse to divert security guards'
attention.
Gunmen got over the walls and walked through where students in grades eight, nine and 10 have classes.
The militants came in
with enough ammunition and other supplies to last for days and were not
expecting to come out alive, a Pakistani military official said.
Most of those killed
were between the ages of 12 and 16, said Pervez Khattak, chief minister
of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.
Some adults were also
targeted, including a 28-year-old office assistant who was shot and
burned alive, police official Faisal Shehzad said.
Goal was to kill
Pakistani authorities said the attackers' goal was to kill, not take captives.
While lifting a moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases, the Prime Minister expressed frustration about failed talks.
"We tried dialogue with
these militants, we reopened the door to talks," Sharif said. "It was
unsuccessful ... there was no other option than to engage in an
operation against these people."
He did not mention any
specific terror groups. But the Pakistan Taliban and the government have
been involved in peace talks in the past. Pakistan released 19 Taliban
noncombatants in a goodwill gesture, but talks broke down after a wave
of militant attacks.
Violent past
Pakistan has seen plenty
of violence, much of it involving militants targeting restive regions
in northwest Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan.
It is the home base of
the Pakistan Taliban, known as the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan or TTP,
which seeks to enforce its conservative version of Islam in Pakistan.
The group has battled Pakistani troops and attacked civilians, including
in Peshawar, an ancient city of more than 3 million people.
And the Taliban haven't
hesitated to go after schoolchildren. Their most notable target is
Malala Yousafzai, who was singled out and shot in October 2012 as she
rode to school in a van with other girls. The teenage girl survived and
became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize last week for her
efforts to promote education and girls' rights.
Yousafzai said the attack left her heartbroken.
"Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this," she said.
Afghan Taliban slam Pakistan counterparts
This is the deadliest
incident inside Pakistan since October 2007, when 139 Pakistanis died
and more than 250 others were wounded in an attack near a procession for
exiled former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to the
University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database.
Even the Taliban in
Afghanistan, who are closely affiliated with their Pakistani
counterparts, criticized the killing of women and children as against
Islamic teaching.
The spokesman for the Afghan terror group expressed condolences to the victims of Tuesday's attack.
CNN's Sophia Saifi reported from Islamabad,
along with journalists Saleem Mehsud, Zahir Shah and Adeel Raja, and
CNN's Faith Karimi and Greg Botelho wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Khushbu
Shah contributed to this report.
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