20th January, 2016
Pakistani medical officials confirmed that the death tolls from the attack at Bacha Khan University in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday have risen to 21.
Zubair Ali, a medical officer, said both male and female students, security guards and teachers were among the dead.
The attack took place on the campus of Bacha Khan University in Charsadda town in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, an area that has long been a stronghold of militants.
A police officer said on condition of anonymity that more than 1,000 students were on campus when the shooting started and more than 19 people were killed.
He said the death toll could rise to as high as 40.
Bilal Ahmad-Faizi, spokesman for the rescue workers, said 19 bodies had been recovered including students, guards, policemen and at least one professor.
“Firing had ended after several hours and four militants were killed, the army said, in an attack that comes a little over a year after Taliban gunmen killed 134 students at a military-run school in nearby Peshawar.
A senior security officer at the scene said 90 per cent of the campus had been secured and that 51 people were wounded.
He said on condition of anonymity that the militants, using the cover of thick, wintry fog, scaled the walls of Bacha Khan University, before entering buildings and opening fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels.
The officer said gunmen attacked as the university prepared to host a poetry recital on Wednesday afternoon to commemorate the death anniversary of Khan-Abdul Ghaffar-Khan, a popular ethnic Pashtun independence activist after whom the university is named.
Fazal Rahim, the University Vice Chancellor, told reporters that the university teaches over 3,000 students and was hosting an additional 600 visitors on Wednesday for the recital.
Meanwhile, Police Inspector, Saeed Wazir, said 70 per cent of the students had been rescued.
“All students have been evacuated from the hostels, but militants are still hiding in different parts of the university and some students and staff are stuck inside.
“It is unclear how many gunmen were involved,” he said.
Shabir Khan, a lecturer in the English Language Department, said he was about to leave his university housing for the department when firing began.
“Most of the students and staff were in classes when the firing began.
“I have no idea about what’s going on, but I heard one security official talking on the phone to someone and said many people had been killed and injured,” he said.
Television footage showed soldiers entering the campus as ambulances lined up outside the main gate and anxious parents consoled each other.
Pakistan, which has suffered from years of jihadist militant violence, has killed and arrested hundreds of suspected militants under a major crackdown launched after the massacre of school children in December 2014 in Peshawar.