Pakistan school attack: Most of the students were shot point blank in the head

Islamabad: Most of the students at the army-run school in Peshawar were shot in the head from point blank range by the ruthless Taliban suicide attackers, in one of the most gruesome attacks against children in recent years.

At least 132 students and nine staffers were killed when the attackers wearing para-military Frontier Corps uniforms stormed the Army Public School on Warsak Road and started indiscriminate firing on them on Tuesday.

Quoting students, Dawn reported that the attackers scaled the boundary wall from the adjacent graveyard and started firing while moving towards the classrooms and auditorium.

At the time of attack, 150 children were watching a first-aid demonstration in a hall.

Reports also say that the military was supposed to conduct the first-aid demonstrations and drills for various life-saving measures, to the students.

"Most of the students have received bullets in the head," Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani said, giving out chilling account of the attack.

The parents, who usually wait outside the school to pick their children at the closing time, were seen crying outside hospitals.

Besides the parents and relatives, the people visiting the hospitals were also seen mourning on seeing the bodies and injured students in their blood-stained school uniform.

"I saw 17 bodies at the CMH (Combined Military Hospital) and all of them had received bullets in the head," said an eyewitness. He said that some of the bodies were mutilated.

Mohammad Zeeshan, a student of grade-7, told Dawn that he and many others were getting first aid training in the school hall when they heard the gunfire.

"Our trainer told us to lie down on the floor," he said, adding that in the meantime the terrorists entered the hall.

Zeeshan said the terrorists started shooting the students in their heads at a close range.

"They killed our class-fellows and then left us in the main hall. I received a bullet in my foot," he said.

Another injured student said that terrorists were firing on the students in classrooms.

"They also killed one of our teachers," he said.

Hospitals in Peshawar have reported a severe shortage of blood and essential medical supplies.

The Taliban said they sent the gunmen into the building as revenge for a Pakistan military crackdown on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and allies in North Waziristan tribal heartlands.

The TTP said many of their family members had been killed in the campaign, and said the attack on the school was in revenge for those deaths.

'We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,' said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. 'We want them to feel the pain.'

World leaders have condemned the ghastly attacks and have issued strong statements.