{At least 19 people dead after gunmen storm Charsadda university in northwest Pakistan.}<\/p>\n
At least 19 people have been killed in an attack that lasted six hours at a university in northwest Pakistan, according to an army spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Attackers scaled a wall and cut through barbed wire on Wednesday morning at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, about 140km from the capital Islamabad.<\/p>\n
The attack left at least 50 people injured. A security official said the death toll could rise to as high as 40.<\/p>\n
“The operation is over and the university has been cleared,” Pakistan Army spokesperson General Asim Bajwa told Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
“Four gunmen have been killed.”<\/p>\n
Attackers entered the university complex in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and opened fire at students and teachers in classrooms and hostels, according to police officials.<\/p>\n
There were conflicting statements from the Pakistani Taliban, as one commander claimed the attack, but the group’s spokesperson later disassociated the Taliban from the attack, saying it was “un-Islamic”.<\/p>\n
Students told local media they saw several young men wielding AK-47 guns storming the university housing where many students were sleeping.<\/p>\n
The university has over 3,000 enrolled students and was hosting an additional 600 visitors on Wednesday for a poetry recital on the death anniversary of the Pashtun activist Abdul Ghaffar “Bacha” Khan, the university’s vice-chancellor said.<\/p>\n
Abdul Ghaffar ‘Bacha Khan’ was known for his nonviolent protest opposing British rule over India. <\/p>\n
“Around 200 students have been safely evacuated from an examination hall in the university,” Provincial Public Health Engineering Minister Shah Farman said.<\/p>\n
Local authorities have announced the closure of all education institutions across Charsadda until January 31.<\/p>\n
Earlier, as police and soldiers rushed to the campus, the attackers traded gunfire with the troops and several explosions were heard from the area of the university.<\/p>\n
The army said the attackers were contained in two university blocks before being killed.<\/p>\n
Television footage showed heavy military presence at the university, troops rushing in and people fleeing.<\/p>\n
Students spoke of one hero teacher, Syed Hamid Husain, fighting back against the intruders, shooting his weapon in a bid to protect the students.<\/p>\n
Geology student Zahoor Ahmed said his lecturer had warned him not to leave the building after the first shots were fired.<\/p>\n
“He was holding a pistol in his hand,” said Ahmed.<\/p>\n
“Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall.”<\/p>\n
Teachers in the province were given permission to carry firearms in the classroom after the December 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up close to a police checkpoint in the Jamrud area of northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 20.<\/p>\n
At least 144 people, most of them children, were killed when armed men attacked the 2014 attack on the Peshawar school.<\/p>\n
Last month, Pakistan executed four men linked to the school massacre which left more than 130 school children dead.<\/p>\n
The executions, which officials said were carried out by hanging at a prison in the city of Kohat, were the first in connection with the December 16 attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{At least 19 people dead after gunmen storm Charsadda university in northwest Pakistan.} At least 19 people have been killed in an attack that lasted six hours at a university in northwest Pakistan, according to an army spokesperson. Attackers scaled a wall and cut through barbed wire on Wednesday morning at the Bacha Khan University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071627,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22654.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22654.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22654.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22654.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22654.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22654.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22654"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22654"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}