Agencies
Islamabad
Pakistan yesterday said its people are deeply shocked and grieved by the “despicable” terror attack on a school in Peshawar that left over 130 people, mostly children, dead and added that the entire nation stands united and resolute in its commitment to eliminate terrorism from the soil of Pakistan.
In a statement, the Pakistan foreign office said that “terrorists have once again shown that they have no regard for human life and no respect for children”.
Heavily armed gunmen and suicide bombers attacked an army-run school in Peshawar city in retaliation for the Pakistan Army’s operation against extremists in North Waziristan.
The gunmen massacred school children, with many being shot in the head and chest from point blank range. The vicious terror strike, Geo News reported citing authorities in Peshawar hospitals, left at least 137 people dead.
“In this hour of grief, our hearts go out to the families of these young children who embraced shahadat today,” the foreign office statement said.
“Such cold blooded cowardly acts cannot weaken the resolve of the people of Pakistan, the Government, and the Armed forces, to combat all terrorists. These terrorists are enemies of Pakistan, enemies of Islam and enemies of humanity.
“We pay our homage to our brave soldiers who are engaged in a valiant effort to root out terrorism from the country.
“The Pakistani nation stands united in condemning this heinous crime and remains resolute in its commitment to eliminate terrorism from the soil of Pakistan. Success will Inshallah be of our brave and indomitable people,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, a senior Pakistani politician who visited victims of yesterday’s Taliban attack on a school survived a roadside bomb blast on his way home, police said.
Amir Muqam, an adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former governor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was returning home after visiting hospitalised victims of the school raid in Peshawar when a bomb blast went off near his vehicle.
“A roadside bomb blast exploded as Muqam’s vehicle was passing by at Pish Takhar area of ring road at the outskirts of Peshawar,” senior police official Mouhamed Ijaz Khan said.
He said Muqam’s driver and two guards were injured.
Faisal Shahzad, another senior police official confirmed the incident and said the driver and guards were in stable condition.
Malala ‘heartbroken’ by school slayings
Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012, said she was “heartbroken” by “the senseless and cold blooded” killing of scores of children by Taliban militants yesterday in Pakistan.
At least 130 people, most of them children, were killed when gunmen stormed an army-run school in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar in an act that drew swift global condemnation.
“I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us. Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this,” Malala said in a statement.
“I condemn these atrocious and cowardly acts and stand united with the government and armed forces of Pakistan whose efforts so far to address this horrific event are commendable.”
Seventeen-year-old Malala, who now lives in Britain, became a global icon after she was shot and nearly killed by the Taliban in her native Pakistan in October 2012 for insisting that girls had a right to an education.
Meanwhile, child rights activist and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi yesterday condemned the terrorist attack on school children in Pakistan, terming the incident as “one of the darkest days in humanity”.
In a tweet, Satyarthi said: “My heart bleeds for bereaved families. One of the darkest days of humanity. My prayers and condolences are with the families.”
Referring to the children who died as his own, he lamented that children are the first casualties of violence and war.
He urged the Pakistani government to protect children.
