Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Terror Untamed

Jan 26, 2016, at 01:19 am

Shocking memories of the gruesome attack on December 16, 2014, at the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar were revived when terrorists stormed the Bacha Khan University in the Charsadda District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on January 20, 2016, killing at least 21 persons and causing injuries to another 35. The victims included 17 students, two gardeners, a caretaker and a professor. The attack ended with all the four attackers shot dead after a three hour operation. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Mardan Range, Mohammad Saeed Wazir, who led the operation, declared, "Our cops fought bravely to shoot dead all the four attackers one by one. They were wearing suicide jackets but none of them could succeed in blowing himself up." The mastermind of the APS Peshawar attack, Khalifa Umar Mansoor akaAurangzeb, of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)'s Geedar faction claimed the attack through a post on his Facebook page. However, the 'central spokesperson' of the TTP, Muhammad Khorasani, denied any involvement stating, "The TTP and itsamir Maulana Fazalullah have nothing to do with the attack." The TTP has three prominent factions - Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), the Geedar faction and the Mehsud faction (also known as Sajna faction). The parent TTP is led by Mullah Fazlullah.