Taliban-affiliated terrorists burst into a public school in Peshwar, Pakistan this morning, leaving at least 135 dead and at least 100 injured.
According to Pakistan Home Department reports, the terrorists accessed the Army Public School through a graveyard behind the school.
The Arabic-speaking terrorists entered the Army Public School around 10 a.m. (local time) and went from classroom to classroom shooting children. Of those killed, nine were adults, including a female teacher and a guard. The rest of those murdered were children, according to The Hindu newspaper. There were approximately 500 students in the school at the time of the attack.
A counteroffensive was launched by Pakistan security forces which surrounded the school shortly after the attack began. Local reports state that all of the terrorists died, either in fighting or by suicide.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement issued by a Taliban spokesman, Mohammed Khurasani, said that the attack was in revenge for the killings of Taliban members at the hands of Pakistani authorities in North Waziristan.
World leaders condemned the attack and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif termed it a “national tragedy.” He called for a three-day nationwide mourning period.
Sharif reaffirmed that the military operation ‘Zarb-e-Azab’ will continue. That operation, which began in June, is intended to flush out terrorists from the country’s tribal belt.
“It’s a sheer act of cowardice…the country should unite to combat terrorism,” Sharif said about the attack.
This article has been updated to revise upwards the number of adults killed from two to nine, and to change the number of injured from the specific “250” to now read “more than a hundred.”