9 killed, 35 hurt as Pak Taliban militants disguised in burqa attack college

Peshawar: Pakistani Taliban gunmen disguised in all-enveloping burqas stormed the campus of an agriculture college in Pakistan on Friday, killing at least nine people and wounding 35, police and hospital officials said.

Police and army troops summoned to the scene killed all the attackers at the Agriculture Training Institute in the northwestern city of Peshawar about two hours into the attack, the military's press wing said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility saying in a message from spokesman Mohammad Khorasani that they had targeted a safe house of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

The gunmen arrived at the campus in an auto-rickshaw, disguised in the burqas worn by many women in the region, Peshawar police chief Tahir Khan said.

Police and rescue workers outside the Directorate of Agriculture Institute in Peshawar, Pakistan

They shot and wounded a guard before entering the campus, he said.

A wounded student, Ahteshan ul-Haq, said the university hostel usually houses nearly 400 students, but most had gone home for a long holiday weekend and only about 120 students remained.