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Pakistan Charsadda: Deadly assault on university

What we know so far

• An attack by suspected Taliban militants on a university in north-west Pakistan has killed at least 19 people and injured 50.
• An army official said the attack was over but troops were still searching Bacha Khan University campus in Charsadda.
• Four attackers were killed, the army reported.
• A senior Pakistan Taliban commander claimed the group was responsible for the attack but the main spokesman for the group later denied that it was involved.
• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: "We are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland."  

There have been conflicting claims about who was behind the attack, with a senior Taliban commander initially claiming responsibility, only for the group's main spokesman to deny any involvement.

The confusion is perhaps no surprise, given a kaleidoscopic mix of militant networks along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region in the north.

The attack comes amid a sudden spike in militant violence in Pakistan, after a year of relative peace and quiet attributed to a 2014 military operation against militants in Waziristan. 

Questions are now being raised over whether that operation really destroyed the ability of militants to regroup and strike at will.

This attack is reminiscent of the December 2014 attack on a school in Peshawar, in which more than 150 people, mostly schoolboys, were killed. Damage to life and property this time has been much less, partly due to swift action by the local police but also because the university had its own team of more than 50 trained security guards.

A dense fog that reduced visibility to less than 10 metres may also have been a factor.

Image source, AFP/Getty

Imran Khan, head of the opposition PTI which governs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has described the attack as "cowardly".

The cricketer-turned-politician is travelling to the scene.

A witness told local TV how a friend leapt from a high window to escape the militants, who were chanting "Allah is the greatest".

• An attack by suspected Taliban militants on a university in north-west Pakistan has killed at least 19 people and injured 50.
• An army official said the attack was over but troops were still searching Bacha Khan University campus in Charsadda.
• Four attackers were killed, the army reported.
• A senior Pakistan Taliban commander claimed the group was responsible for the attack but the main spokesman for the group later denied that it was involved.
• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: "We are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland."  

Image source, AP

The main spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban - the TTP - has denied that the group carried out the attack.

In a statement, Mohammad Khurasani described the attack as "un-Islamic" and said the group would hold people accountable for using its name.

His statement contradicts a senior Pakistan Taliban commander, who earlier claimed that the group was responsible for the attack.

Twitter users in Pakistan and beyond have been paying tribute to Syed Hamid Hussain, a Chemistry professor at the university who reportedly fired back at the militants before he was shot dead.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned the attack and sent his condolences to the families of the victims.

ARY News' online editor Omar Qurashi has told the BBC that the university appears to have been chosen because it was an easy target:

Image source, AFP/Getty

Imran Khan, the leader of the PTI party which rules the area where the university is located, has condemned the attack, Geo TV reports.

"I am going to Charsadda myself, and will review the situation myself. We are united against terrorism and all of Pakistan is on [the same] page," he told reporters.

The hashtags #Charsadda and #BachaKhanUniversity have been trending among Pakistani Twitter users as the country reacts:

AFP have quoted a student who was speaking to Pakistani TV:

The student also described seeing a chemistry professor holding a pistol and firing at the attackers.  

AFP say they have spoken to a Pakistani Taliban commander, who says his group was behind the attack. Speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, Umar Mansoor said it was in response to a military offensive against extremists in the tribal areas.  

Pakistan's media regulator Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has asked the media not to reveal the movements of security personnel or students, Radio Pakistan reports.

Parents are saying that security arrangements at Bacha Khan University were not good enough, according to Reuters Pakistan correspondent Mehreen Zahra-Malik, external.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, AFP reports.

Local Pakistani media have also reported the Taliban claim.

People react following the attack.

Image source, Reuters

At least four seriously injured people have been rushed to Peshawar's Lady Reading hospital, the BBC's Ilyas Khan reports.