132 Dead in Taliban Killing Spree

A total of 132 pupils including nine school staff were killed in a daylight attack on the military-operated school on Tuesday after an assault lauded by Taliban insurgents as “revenge for the killings of their own relatives” against the Pakistani army.

Report said witness interviews revealed that most of the victims were shot in the first hours of the assault when gunmen peppered the premises with bullets, resulting to an indiscriminate massacre.

However, it was possible that some were also killed in the ensuing gunfight with Pakistani armed forces who stormed the building, reports added.

The school in Peshawar, a Pakistani city on the edge of the country, is operated by the army, although it enrolled some civilian students, report said.

Many of its pupils are children of army officials, the Taliban’s intended target.

The assault began at around 10 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) when a group of militants with “suicide vests” strapped to their bodies, rammed into the building.

Witnesses account said some were wearing Pakistani army uniforms.

Attackers bypassed the heavily guarded main entrance and slipped in through a less frequently used back entrance, report said.