“This is the second Beslan”

Militant attack on a school in Pakistan became the main topic of Western media

Armed militants believed to belong to the radical Taliban movement attacked a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing 84 children and taking dozens of hostages. The events in Peshawar became one of the main topics of most Western media.

Updated [14:55] : The number of victims of the attack on a school in Peshawar has risen to 130 people.

What happened in Peshawar

The attack on the school began at 10 a.m. local time on December 16. According to Pakistani police officer Javed Khan, a group of terrorists from the Islamist radical group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) entered the territory of the educational institution. The militants opened fire in the building while classes were already going on there, and then entered into a shootout with law enforcement agencies and the military who arrived at the scene.

A teacher's assistant at the school who witnessed the attack told CBS that the Taliban moved from one room of the building to another, beating children and anyone who got in their way.

According to other sources, the terrorists who led the group gave orders to their subordinates to kill high school students and release small children. On social networks, the attack is already being compared in terms of the number of victims and the degree of cruelty to the hostage taking in the Russian Beslan in 2004.

According to CBS, there were at least six attackers. They managed to take control of part of the building. At this moment, there were a total of about 500 students and teachers inside. The Pakistani army launched an operation to eliminate the terrorists, and within a few hours, most of the people taken hostage were taken to nearby hospitals.

At the time of writing, there was no exact information about whether any other children were in the hands of terrorists. It was reported that the militants may still hold the school director and several of its employees hostage.

At the same time, 84 children evacuated from the educational institution have already died in two hospitals. This information was confirmed to the press by the Chief Minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the administrative center of which is Peshawar.

What are the authorities doing?

A military rescue operation continues in the school building. According to The Guardian, army units and ambulances have been deployed to the educational institution. A helicopter constantly circles over the area. Eyewitnesses of the events report that the shootout between the invaders and the military continues.

All educational institutions in Pakistan are under tight security. At the same time, all medical institutions in Peshawar have been placed in emergency mode. An urgent collection of donor blood has been announced among city residents for children who continue to be admitted with wounds. Most of the victims have gunshot and shrapnel wounds.

reports India Today that two soldiers were also killed during the special operation at the school. The total number of victims at the time of writing this material exceeded 100 people. The country's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urgently left for Peshawar, calling what was happening there a “national tragedy.”

Why did the Taliban attack the school?

The school that was attacked is a specialized educational institution for children of the Pakistani military. The school is run by army personnel and is located on the outskirts of the Peshawar military zone. However, there are also many civilian children among the students.

According to the BBC, representatives of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan group, who took responsibility for the seizure, said that the action was a response to “the actions of the army.” What exactly was meant by this is unknown.

We chose school as our target because the army chose our families as our target. We want them to feel our pain.

Representative of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan

Peshawar has been attacked by the Taliban in the past. Representatives of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan previously threatened to take revenge on the Pakistani authorities for the decision to conduct a military operation against the group in the so-called Northern Varizistan tribal region, located along the Afghan border.

Operation Zarb-e-Azb began in June this year and is still ongoing. in September The Pakistani army reported that it had killed more than 900 terrorists.

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