Chairs are upturned and blood stains the floor at the Army Public School auditorium the day after Taliban gunmen stormed the school in Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. AP
MANILA, Philippines–The world united in revulsion.
President Aquino and other world leaders stood as one on Wednesday in condemning the Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan as Karachi declared three days of mourning for the 132 children and nine school staff massacred by the terrorists on Tuesday.
In a statement, Aquino said the attack “dishonored Islam” and the Taliban had “no justification” for the “senseless deaths of so many young [children].”
“The barbarism of this attack [is] an affront to all civilized peoples,” Aquino said.
“Such an act of terror and savagery deserves nothing less than our condemnation,” the President said. “There can be no justification for this tragedy, which has dishonored Islam.”
Aquino said the Philippines was one with Pakistan in mourning the schoolchildren and staff who perished in the attack on Army Public School and Degree College in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
“We join the world in condemning the outrage perpetrated on innocent schoolchildren, and school officials and personnel in Peshawar, Pakistan,” Aquino said. “Today every person of goodwill is a father, mother, brother and sister to the people of Pakistan.”
Victims are also Muslims
US President Barack Obama also condemned the “horrific attack,” as other US officials offered assistance in responding to the massacre.
“By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity,” Obama said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
“We stand with the people of Pakistan, and reiterate the commitment of the United States to support the government of Pakistan in its efforts to combat terrorism and extremism and to promote peace and stability in the region.”
“The depraved decision that one has to make to storm a school with innocent children and open fire on them, I think is a testament to how cold-blooded these extremists are,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
“Many of these extremists like to characterize their struggle as a struggle of Muslims against the Western world. But that clearly is not true if the largest number of victims that we’re seeing are actually Muslims. And that makes the situation all the more heartbreaking and all the more tragic,” he said.
Earnest said US officials had been in touch through a variety of channels to offer help, but he declined to offer specifics.
The attack comes as US and Nato troops this month end their combat mission in neighboring Afghanistan, 13 years after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime for harboring those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Taliban fighters have been waging attacks across Afghanistan as well, and some US forces will be deployed to train and advise Afghan security forces to combat the threat.
Tuesday’s attack, claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as revenge for a major military offensive in the region, sparked condemnation worldwide and led the Pakistani government and military to reaffirm their determination to defeat a group that has killed thousands since it began its insurgency in 2007.
The 141 people were killed when insurgents stormed the Army-run school in Peshawar and systematically went from room to room, shooting children during an eight-hour killing spree.
Savages
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced three days of national mourning and described the attack as a “national tragedy unleashed by savages.”
“These were my children. This is my loss. This is the nation’s loss,” said Sharif, who was later due to host a meeting of all parliamentary parties in Peshawar.
Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, herself shot by the Taliban in 2012, said she was “heartbroken” by “the senseless and cold-blooded” killings.
Leaders in Europe echoed the condemnation. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott offered his own sympathy to Pakistan, as his government deals with the fallout from a café siege by a deranged Islamist gunman.
Narendra Modi, the prime minister of Pakistan’s neighbor and bitter rival India, said he had called Sharif to offer condolences.
“Told PM Sharif we are ready to provide all assistance during this hour of grief,” Modi tweeted.
‘Indiscriminate firing’
Pakistan’s chief military spokesman, Gen. Asim Bajwa, said 125 people had been wounded in the assault.
The death toll exceeded the 139 killed in blasts targeting former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi in 2007.
There were around 500 students in the school when the attack started, and Bajwa said the attackers, equipped with ammunition and food to last “days,” only wanted to kill.
“The terrorists started indiscriminate firing as they entered the auditorium so they had no intention of taking any hostages,” he told reporters.
A senior security official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that authorities were investigating the nationality of the attackers since some were speaking in Arabic.
Funerals of many of the victims had taken place by Tuesday evening, with the rest to follow Wednesday.
Lady Reading Hospital was thronged with distraught parents weeping uncontrollably as children’s bodies arrived, their school uniforms drenched in blood.
Irshadah Bibi, 40, whose 12-year-old son was among the dead, beat her face in grief, throwing herself against an ambulance.
“O God, why did you snatch away my son? What is the sin of my child and all these children?” she wept.
‘Soft target’
The school on Peshawar’s Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System, which runs schools nationwide. Its students range in age from around 10 to 18.
Tuesday’s attack was shocking even by the standards of Pakistan, which has suffered thousands of deaths in bomb and gun attacks since the TTP rose up in 2007.
TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani said the assault was carried out to avenge Taliban fighters and their families killed in the Army’s offensive against militant strongholds in North Waziristan.
“We are doing this because we want them to feel the pain of how terrible it is when your loved ones are killed,” he said. “We are taking this step so that their families should mourn as ours are mourning.”
The military has hailed the offensive as a major success in disrupting the TTP’s insurgency.
More than 1,600 militants have been killed since the launch of operation Zarb-e-Azb in June, according to data compiled by AFP from military statements.
“The militants know they won’t be able to strike at the heart of the military, they don’t have the capacity. So they are going for soft targets,” said Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst.–With reports from AP and AFP