CHARSADDA, PAKISTAN — At least 20 people have been killed after four gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked Bacha Khan University in northwest Pakistan Monday morning.
The gunmen entered the school through the back gate amid thick fog at about 9:30 a.m. local time and opened fire in classrooms and accommodation blocks indiscriminately, reported The Guardian.
At around midday local time, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, the Khyber Paktunkhwa health minister, told The Guardian that 20 people were confirmed dead while at least 60 were injured. He also warned that the death toll will rise.
According to The Guardian, Chemistry professor Dr. Syed Hamid Hussain died trying to fight the attackers. He reportedly had a pistol in hand and told students to stay inside the building.
The Army spokesman on the ground, Asim Bajwa, said on Twitter that two of the terrorists were killed by army troops, while the other were shot dead by snipers on the roof.
Omar Mansoor, a commander of Pakistani militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban, claimed responsibility of the attack in a Facebook post, reported The Guardian. However, Mohammad Khurasani, the main spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, denied the claim and called it "un-Islamic", according to the Express Tribune.
The attack comes just a year after the attack at the Army Public School and Degree College in Peshawar that killed 145 people, including 132 children. Today is also the 28th anniversary of the death of Pashtun independence and peace activist Abdul Ghaffar Khan, whom, the university was named after.
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