As many as 141 people, nearly all of them school children, were massacred on Tuesday (December 12) when heavily armed Taliban suicide bombers stormed a Pakistan army-run school in Peshawar, firing indiscriminately, leaving another 130 injured. Dressed in para-military Frontier Corps uniforms, the seven Arabic-speaking terrorists entered the Army Public School on Warsak Road around 10 AM (local time) from the rear side and went from classroom to classroom shooting innocent children indiscriminately in one of the most gruesome terror attacks anywhere. Chief Military Spokesman Maj Gen Asim Bajwa told a news conference tonight that 132 of the dead were children and another nine were staff members. A total of 130 people--118 students, three staffers, seven SSG soldiers and two officers -- were injured, he said. He also said that 960 students and staffers were rescued. Bajwa said all the seven militants were killed in the operations involving Special Services Group(SSG) or commandos. Some of them reportedly blew themselves up. "The operation is over. The school has been handed over to its administration. SSG troops are withdrawn" he added. Bajwa said about 1,000 students and staffers were in the school at the time of the attack. Earlier, reports had put the death toll at 160 but later it was scaled down. During the over eight-hour standoff, the terrorists also took several hostages, including teachers and the principal of the school, and used them as human shield during the assault.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, the bloodiest in recent years since the 2008 suicide bombing in Karachi in which 150 people were killed. The Taliban spokesman claimed that 6 suicide bombers were involved in the attack and that it was a revenge for the military's operation against militants in the North Waziristan tribal area close to Peshawar. "We want them to feel our pain," the spokesman said. Gen Bajwa said the militants came from the back side of the
