Staff Writer
Taliban
suicide-bombers killed over 140 people during an attack on a military-run
school in Peshawar, Pakistan this Tuesday, making it the deadliest attack ever
committed by the Taliban in the country.
More than 130 of the victims were children. Initially, officials believed that the
intention of the terrorist group was to take hostages, but now it appears that
they were trying to kill as many members of the school as possible. Six terrorists were involved in the attack, which
started around 10:00 a.m. They scaled
the walls of the school armed with guns and suicide vests. The arrival of Pakistani troops stopped the
insurgents, and all of the terrorists have been reported dead. Peshawar is a volatile area, and there have
been many other acts of terrorism in the area.
A spokesman for the Pakistani-based Taliban said that the attack was a
response to a military offensive carried out against Taliban members in North
Waziristan. The majority of the students
killed were between the ages of 12 and 16, and many of them were children of
military officials.
The
Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, has condemned the attack. He lifted a ban on the death penalty related
to terrorist attacks, and is working with representatives in the Afghan
government to capture Taliban officials living in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama and Nobel Prize winner
Malala Yousafzai have also spoken out against the attack, with Obama calling it
an act of “depravity” and saying that “The United States condemns in the
strongest possible terms today’s horrific attack on the Army Public School in
Peshawar, Pakistan.”
