Peshawar, Pakistan: An eerie silence hung over the shattered, blood-spattered corridors and classrooms of the Army Public School on Wednesday — the silence of 132 dead Pakistani children, their lives cut short by Taliban gunmen.Instead of the shouts of excited teenagers echoing down the school's hallways and in the crisp winter air of its manicured grounds, only the crunch of soldiers' boots could be heard.
As the death toll from Pakistan’s deadliest ever terror attack rose to 148, the full horrifying aftermath of Tuesday’s eight-hour bloodbath in the northwestern city of Peshawar was revealed.In the school’s plush auditorium which saw some of the worst of the carnage, blood pooled in patches on the floor.Books, ties, sweaters, notepads, spectacles lay scattered, drenched in the blood of children who will never use them again, never go to school again, never laugh or cry again.
They had assembled for a lecture, preparing them for a future that more than 100 of them would never see as they were cut down in a hail of bullets fired by the heavily-armed Taliban militants.It was in this hall that 16-year-old Shahrukh Khan saved his own life by playing dead after being shot in both legs — stuffing his tie into his mouth to stifle his screams of pain.“My body was shivering. I saw death so close and I will never forget the black boots approaching me -- I felt as though it was death that was approaching me,” he said.
