Was Pakistan School Massacre in Revenge for Malala's Nobel Prize? -Children Forced to Watch Their Teacher Being Burned Alive as Taliban Murder 132 Children
- Gunmen in Peshawar entered school and started shooting at random
- One terrorist blew himself up in a classroom containing 60 children
- Teacher set on fire in front of pupils, with the children forced to watch
- Insurgents had ‘inside information’ before carrying out well-planned attack
- MailOnline heard harrowing eyewitness accounts of the massacre
- Taliban accepted responsibility for the attack, claiming it 'was just a trailer'
- Expert claims attack could be due to Malala Yousafzai winning Nobel prize
- David Cameron described today's events as a 'dark, dark day for humanity'
- Afghan Taliban criticised 'killing of innocent children' as against principles
- The massacre is the worst ever in the deeply troubled region
Daily Mail UK, 16 December 2014
A teacher was burned alive while her pupils were forced to watch during the massacre at the Peshawar school that saw over 130 killed, it has been reported. Nine Taliban gunmen stormed a military school in the north-western Pakistani city today, in the worst ever militant attack to hit the troubled region. A source told NBC: 'They burnt a teacher in front of the students in a classroom. They literally set the teacher on fire with gasoline and made the kids watch.'
It was also reported that one suicide bomber blew himself up in a room containing 60 children and that some of the bodies that have arrived at a hospital in Peshawar (bottom left) have been headless, though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm this. A 10-year-old boy caught up in the massacre has spoken of his dramatic escape from Taliban gunmen as bullets whizzed past his head - having seen two of his classmates shot dead in front of him. The attack ended after special forces (top left) battled the terrorists for nine hours. During the siege, Pakistani schoolgirls prayed for the victims (top right). The main picture shows the uncle and cousin of injured student Mohammad Baqair, who are comforting him as he mourns the death of his mother, who was a teacher at the school.
Harrowing eyewitness accounts revealed how students were forced to watch as bodies were burned beyond recognition.
Other survivors told how they played dead while insurgents scoured the school looking for children to shoot, before open fire indiscriminately - sometimes with smiles on their faces.
During a three-hour orgy of bloodshed, seven jihadists claimed at least 141 lives before themselves being killed.
Now one expert has claimed that the horrific events which unfolded today could have been in retaliation to 17-year-old Malala winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
The massacre was also said to be an act of revenge against the Pakistani army, which has been attempting to suppress the Pakistani Taliban in their north Waziristan tribal homelands over the past few months.
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Grief-stricken: Relatives weep over a 15-year-old student who was killed during a massacre at a school in Peshawar, which claimed the lives of 132 children
The uncle and cousin of injured student Mohammad Baqair, center, comfort him as he mourns the death of his mother, who was a teacher at the school which was attacked by Taliban
A policeman stands beside empty coffins at the hospital after the school was stormed by terrorists
Mourners carry the coffin of a teacher who died during an attack by terrorists in Pershawar, Pakistan
Malala - the youngest ever person to win the award - was shot by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 while on a school bus, as punishment for advocating education for women in Pakistan.
She has since become a worldwide symbol for the fight against oppression on women and the right to education.
Ahmed Rashid, an expert on the Islamic militants, told the BBC that the insurgents had various reasons to attack the school - one of which was to send a message to Malala's supporters.
The Taliban has previously warned that Malala had forged a pact with 'Western satanic forces'.
Hours after the attack, Malala led the national condemnation on the 'atrocious' events, saying she was 'heartbroken' by the 'cold-blooded act of terror'.
The massacre began early this morning as the gunmen stormed the school. A teacher is said to have been doused in petrol and set alight, her pupils forced to watch her die an awful, agonising death.
The victim - allegedly singled out because she was married to a senior army officer - was said to be the wife of army soldier Subedar Abbass.
A source told NBC: 'They burnt a teacher in front of the students in a classroom. They literally set the teacher on fire with gasoline and made the kids watch.'
Two bodies burned beyond recognition were taken to the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar, MailOnline has been told. The victims may have been burned as a result of the suicide blast.
One suicide bomber is believed to have blown himself up in a room full of 60 children while there were reports that some of the victims arriving at a hospital in Peshawar had been beheaded, though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm this.
Most of their victims, aged from six to 18, were shot in the head and chest. Corpses choked the army school’s corridors.
One boy said he was the sole survivor of a group of ten friends who tried to find a hiding place but were mown down.
Relatives of injured students leave the hospital where the majority of victims were treated following the attack
Many waited hours to discover what had happened to their loved ones, having to check a list to see if their children had died
Relatives of a student, who was injured during the attack, comfort each other outside Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar
Another woman said that her friend’s daughter escaped the carnage at the school in the north-western city of Peshawar only because the blood on her clothing allowed her to play dead.
The corridors of the city's Combined Military Hospital were lined with dead students, their green-and-yellow school uniform ties peeping out of white body bags.
One distraught family member was given the wrong body because the faces of many children were badly burned as a result of the suicide bomb explosions.
By nightfall, the death toll had reached 141, with the Pakistani military confirming that 132 of those were children, with another 122 children injured.
Pakistan’s intelligence agency and police had also carried out raids around the city, arresting two religious leaders and 27 others in connection with the attack.
It is believed the killers may have had inside information, apparently knowing that 150 pupils were at their mercy watching a first aid demonstration in the main hall.
The horror at school came on the day when the military was scheduled to provide a display of first-aid and drills. The wives of a brigadier and a major were searched out and murdered.
Pakistan’s intelligence agency and police hit back last night with raids across Peshawar and the arrest of 29 suspects, including two religious leaders. Taliban bases were bombed from the air.
People carry the casket of a victim of the Taliban attack, after receiving it from a local hospital in Peshawar
As the death toll reached more than 140, mourners began holding funeral to pay respects to the victims
Mourners of Pakistani teacher Saeed Khan prayed around his body during the procession this evening
His coffin was carried through a huge crowd of people, all wanting to pay their respects to the teacher
One investigative official told MailOnline: 'They knew that children of many army personnel are studying in the school.
'Also they had the complete information that wives of certain army officials are teachers in the school.'
As the city began the devastating task of treating the horrifically wounded and identifying the dead, one grieving father told MailOnline: 'This is a terrible injustice. We are innocent people, my boys are innocents who do not carry guns and bombs.'
Even the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan condemned the attack, saying the slaughtering of 'innocent children' was against its principles.
This is a terrible injustice. We are innocent people, my boys are innocents who do not carry guns and bombs
In a statement, Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said: 'Killing innocent children is against the principals of Afghan Taliban and we condemned. Our thoughts are with the families of those who lost their loved ones.'
Major General Asim Bajwa, a spokesman for the Pakistani army, added: 'Their sole purpose, it seems, was to kill those innocent kids. That's what they did.'
Meanwhile, terrifying accounts of the children's ordeal began to emerge.
A 10-year-old boy caught up in the massacre has spoken of his dramatic escape from Taliban gunmen as bullets whizzed past his head - having seen two of his classmates shot dead in front of him.
Irfan Shah told how he was sitting in his class at 10:30 when he heard the sound of firing outside.
Shah told MailOnline: 'It was our social studies period. Our teacher first told us that some kind of drill was going on and that we do not need to worry. It was very intense firing. Then the sound came closer. Then we heard cries. One of our friends open the window of the class.
'He started weeping as there were several school fellows lying on the ground outside the class.
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GOD, WHY DID YOU SNATCH MY SON? HEARTBREAK FOR MOTHERS OF SLAIN VICTIMS IN SCHOOL SHOOTING MASSACRE
Agony etched on their faces, mothers of the slain pupils wept for their lost children.
They clung to sisters and aunts for comfort as vigils were held. Wearing headscarves, they paid their last respects to pupils in coffins opened to show their faces. Some of the dead children had their heads bandaged to cover their wounds.
Yesterday, some of the funerals were already taking place, in accordance with Islamic tradition. Meanwhile, frantic parents were searching hospitals for their children. For others, it was too late.
One distraught family member was given the wrong body as the faces of many children were badly burned.
Despair: A mother's face is contorted in grief as she mourns her son Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, a student killed during the atrocity
Grief etched across their faces, the women cling to a wooden coffin in visible grief at a vigil for victims
Irshadah Bibi, who lost her 12-year-old son, beat her face as she cried: ‘O God, why did you snatch away my son?’ Humayun Khan said with tears in her eyes: ‘Nobody is telling me about my son’s whereabouts...
‘I have checked the hospital and he is not there. I am really losing my heart.’
Another parent, Tahir Ali, wailed as he came to the hospital to collect the body of son Abdullah, 14: ‘My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now. My dream has been killed.’
Doctors joined a candle-lit vigil at Liberty market in Peshawar. One, identifying himself as Dr Raza, said: ‘The smallest coffins are the heaviest to bear.’
Richard Marsden
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'Everybody was in panic. Two of our class fellows ran outside class in panic. They were shot in front of us.'
He said that the teacher asked the children, part of a class of 33, to run towards the back gate of the school.
He continued: 'The back gate is around 200 meters from our class room. I tightly held the hand of my friend Daniyal and we both ran towards the back gate. We were weeping. I felt bullets passing by my head twice. It was so terrible.
'We reached back gate in a minute. As we stepped outside the gate, we started weeping again very loudly. An aunt from a nearby house heard us and took us inside her house. We were shivering. She gave us water and comforted us. We stayed there for 15 minutes.
'Our van always parked a few hundred meters away from the school. We then went to our van. The van driver told us that our school fellows who have been murdered in the attack are martyrs and they would go to jannah (paradise).
Pakistani schoolgirls pray for the victims of the attack, which ended after a nine-hour gun battle
A man comforts his son, who was injured during the attack
Some of the bodies that have arrived at a hospital in Peshawar have been headless, though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm this
The attack started with the gunmen entering the 500-pupil school - which has students aged 10 to 18
'We have been told that two of our class fellows died in the attack. They both were shot in front of all of us.'
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.'
The attack started with seven gunmen entering the 500-pupil school - which has students aged 10 to 18 - in the early hours.
The jihadists shot their way into the building and went from classroom to classroom, shooting at random and picking off students one by one.
Army commandos quickly arrived at the scene and exchanged fire with the gunmen. Eyewitnesses described how students cowered under desks as dead bodies were strewn along corridors.
News images of the aftermath of the attack showed boys in blood-soaked school uniforms with green blazers being carried from the scene.
Taliban gunmen stormed a military school in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar
Pakistani rescue workers take out students from an ambulance injured in the shootout
After a nine-hour battle Pakistani special forces killed all seven terrorists. During this witnesses described hearing heavy gun fire and explosions.
A military source said that seven army personnel, including two officers, were wounded in the fighting.
It appeared to be the worst attack in Pakistan since a 2007 suicide bombing in the port city of Karachi killed 150 people.
The gunmen, who several students said communicated with each other in a foreign language, managed to slip past the school's tight security because they were wearing Pakistani military uniforms.
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She was sitting on the chair with blood dripping from her body as she burned - Shahrukh Khan
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One 15-year-old student Shahrukh Khan, who was shot in both legs, told how he hid under a bench and played dead to avoid being killed by the insurgents.
Speaking from his bed in the trauma ward of the city's Lady Reading Hospital, the teenager told how he even shoved a tie in his mouth to stop him from screaming out in fear of the gunmen.
The young boy described how, after they burst in shouting 'Allah-o-Akbar' - which means 'God is greatest' - one of them shouted: 'There are so many children beneath the benches, go and get them'.
He said: 'I saw a pair of big black boots coming towards me, this guy was probably hunting for students hiding beneath the benches.'
Khan said he felt searing pain as he was shot in both his legs just below the knee.
He decided to play dead, adding: 'I folded my tie and pushed it into my mouth so that I wouldn't scream.
'The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again.
'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.
Nobel prize winner Malala 'heartbroken' by Pakistan school attack
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THE SHOCKING, HEARTBREAKING EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF THE ATTACK
At first, the children thought it was just a drill. Then the screaming began. As the pupils poring over their books realised the bangs they could hear were the sounds of guns fired in anger, panic spread.
As Pakistani special forces engaged the attackers, harrowing eyewitness accounts of the massacre emerged from survivors.
By 10.15, at least 60 pupils were already dead as hundreds of Pakistani soldiers poured from lorries to seal off the area and take the battle to the Taliban fighters, all of whom were wearing suicide vests.
One 15-year-old student Shahrukh Khan, who was shot in both legs, told how he hid under a bench and played dead to avoid being killed by the insurgents.
Speaking from his bed in the trauma ward of the city's Lady Reading Hospital, the teenager told how he even shoved a tie in his mouth to stop him from screaming out in fear of the gunmen.
Khan described how, after they burst in shouting 'Allah-o-Akbar' - which means 'God is greatest' - one of them shouted: 'There are so many children beneath the benches, go and get them'.
He said: 'I saw a pair of big black boots coming towards me, this guy was probably hunting for students hiding beneath the benches.'
Khan said he felt searing pain as he was shot in both his legs just below the knee.
He decided to play dead, adding: 'I folded my tie and pushed it into my mouth so that I wouldn't scream.
A Pakistani man comforts a student standing at the bedside of an injured boy after today's attack
'The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again.
'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.'
Khan told how he tried to get up, but fell because of his injuries. Desperate to escape to safety, he crawled into the next room, where he the body of the school's office assistant body on fire.
He said: 'She was sitting on the chair with blood dripping from her body as she burned.'
Khan, who said he also saw the body of a soldier who worked at the school, then crawled behind a door to hide, where he lost consciousness.
He added: 'One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand and she was crying in pain.
'One terrorist then walked up to her and started shooting her until she stopped making any sound. All around me my friends were lying injured and dead.'
A 10-year-old boy caught up in the massacre also spoke of his dramatic escape from Taliban gunmen as bullets whizzed past his head - having seen two of his classmates shot dead in front of him.
The school on Peshawar's Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System, which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and civilians
Irfan Shah told how he was sitting in his class at 10:30 when he heard the sound of firing outside.
Shah told MailOnline: 'It was our social studies period. Our teacher first told us that some kind of drill was going on and that we do not need to worry. It was very intense firing. Then the sound came closer. Then we heard cries. One of our friends open the window of the class.
'He started weeping as there were several school fellows lying on the ground outside the class.
'Everybody was in panic. Two of our class fellows ran outside class in panic. They were shot in front of us.'
He said that the teacher asked the children, part of a class of 33, to run towards the back gate of the school.
We have been told that two of our class fellows died in the attack. They both were shot in front of all of us
He continued: 'The back gate is around 200 meters from our class room. I tightly held the hand of my friend Daniyal and we both ran towards the back gate. We were weeping. I felt bullets passing by my head twice. It was so terrible.
'We reached back gate in a minute. As we stepped outside the gate, we started weeping again very loudly. An aunt from a nearby house heard us and took us inside her house. We were shivering. She gave us water and comforted us. We stayed there for 15 minutes.
'Our van always parked a few hundred meters away from the school. We then went to our van. The van driver told us that our school fellows who have been murdered in the attack are martyrs and they would go to jannah (paradise).
'We have been told that two of our class fellows died in the attack. They both were shot in front of all of us.'
Amir Sohail Khan, 19, told MailOnline how he was at his college a few kilometres away from the school when he heard about the attack.
Horror: A school boy who was injured in the Taliban attack receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar
He said: 'I heard about it around 11 at my college. Then my uncle gave me a call and asked me to reach the school to check the whereabouts of my young cousins. One is seven and other is nine. It took me more than 45 minutes to reach the spot as army closed down all the roads and streets leading to school.'
He said that went to the main gate of the school around 12:30.
He continued: 'I saw a few soldiers trying to encircle a young man who was wearing a similar uniform to them. When soldiers tried to approach him, there was a huge blast. The other guy was one of the terrorists. This was such a horrible scene.
'For a few moments, I couldn't understand what was going on. I saw his body parts flying in the air after the blast. One of the soldiers was badly injured.'
Khan also saw terrorists firing indiscriminately in the class rooms on the second floor of the building.
He said: 'It is a huge double story building. I saw a terrorist getting into a classroom and firing like anything. Then I heard the cries and most of those crying became silent after a few minutes which means either they died or fainted.'
A soldier told him that the kids who had successfully managed to get out of school were in a nearby park.
He added: 'I went there but couldn't find my cousins among those kids. A soldier on told me that they might have died in the attack. I could not even imagine that. After, a few minutes I saw the elder one coming towards the park. I was never so happy and relieved to see him. He was weeping and shivering with fear. I held him to my chest. It was great feeling.
'Five minutes after him, my younger cousin also appeared. I lost my senses in happiness after seeing him. Our family is blessed. I saw mothers and fathers crying like mad at the gate of the school. I do not believe that we are so blessed.'
Mohammad Muneeb told how his 14-year-old brother Muhammad Shaheer was shot dead in front of him as 200 children sat in an auditorium, getting training in first aid.
'Two guards were there, sitting on the desk at the front, when four people wearing black uniform ran in. They just started firing. First they targeted the brigadier and his guards, the two guards were killed.
'The brigadier managed to get away safely and they started firing at the students.
An injured student lies in his hospital bed following the attack by Taliban gunmen
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'I saw my own brother die, he was shot in the throat.'
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A school volunteer who did not want to be named described the auditorium shooting: 'I was working with the other organisations. What I saw was indescribable. I was in the auditorium when they burst in, it was 1030 when they broke in to the school. There was a function in the auditorium, they just opened fire on everyone. They just started firing and shooting violently with AK47s.
'There was around 200 children in the auditorium, all boys.'
Father Muhammad Dahir, a computer engineer, said: 'I am so sad, I cannot explain my feelings. I cannot speak. There are dead bodies everywhere. This city is filled with dead bodies. I cannot explain my feelings. What kind of horror are we involved in? We are in the frontline here. Everyone is pushing us, the Americans, our own government.'
Pharmacist Ahmed Salman, whose 15-year-old son was killed, said: 'I took my son to school this morning and I was at work when someone told me there was firing in the school. I went there and saw children being taken out in ambulances. I was searching but I could not find him. My younger brother called me and told me that Ahmed's body was lying in the mortuary of the military hospital.
'He had a bullet in his lungs.'
Mudassar Abbas, a physics laboratory assistant at the school, said some students were celebrating at a party when the attack began.
'I saw six or seven people walking class-to-class and opening fire on children,' he said.
Mudassir Awan, an employee at the school, said he saw at least six people scaling the walls of the building, but initially thought little of it.
A school boy who was injured in the Taliban attack receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar
'We thought it must be the children playing some game. But then we saw a lot of firearms with them,' he said.
'As soon as the firing started, we ran to our classrooms. They were entering every class and they were killing the children,' he added.
One of the wounded students, Abdullah Jamal, said he was with a group of 8th, 9th and 10th graders who were getting first-aid instructions and training with a team of Pakistani army medics when the attack began.
When the shooting started, Mr Jamal, who was shot in the leg, said nobody knew what was going on in the first few seconds.
'Then I saw children falling down who were crying and screaming. I also fell down. I learned later that I have got a bullet,' he said, speaking from his hospital bed.
'All the children had bullet wounds. All the children were bleeding,' he added.
Akhtar Ali, who works out for the UN, was weeping outside the school.
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 told MailOnline: 'My 14-year-old niece Afaq is inside the school. I don't know if she is alive or dead. I am desperate. I am just waiting in hope. It is agony. '
'My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now,' wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he came to the hospital to collect the body of his 14-year-old son, Abdullah.
'My son was my dream. My dream has been killed.'
MailOnline spoke to Naveed Ahmed, who works at the irrigation department. He said: 'My son Hasid Asmad is 16-years-old, is still inside the school., He took a mobile and called me while I was in the mosque, he was praying down the phone. I have been waiting so many hours for news. My son told that he was being kept safe by the Pakistan army inside. They are taking a picture of them to prove they are safe.
'They have told me that the children are safe in the custody of the army.'
Mrs Humayun Khan, one of the mothers of a student, said with tears in her eyes: 'No body is telling me about my son's whereabouts... I have checked the hospital and he is not there. I am really losing my heart. God forbid may he's not among the students still under custody of terrorists.'
Prime Minister David Cameron today said the Taliban attack on the military school was 'deeply shocking'
One of the students is comforted by his uncle after news emerged that his mother was killed in the attack
A student who survived the attack said soldiers came to rescue students during a lull in the firing.
'When we were coming out of the class we saw dead bodies of our friends lying in the corridors. They were bleeding. Some were shot three times, some four times,' the student said.
'The men entered the rooms one by one and started indiscriminate firing at the staff and students.'
Zakir Ahmad, who runs an electronics store in Peshawar, has lost his 16-year-old Abdullah and is frantically searching for 12-year-old Hassnain, who is still missing hours after the atrocity.
Crying and barely able to speak, he told MailOnline: 'When I heard there was an attack I ran to the school. I heard firing. I sent my cousins and staff to search the hospitals while I stayed praying at school. Then after an hour I got the call, he just said Abdullah is dead. I have found him in the hospital. I still don't know anything about my boy Hasnain.
'This is a terrible injustice. We are innocent people, by boys are innocents who do not carry guns and bombs. The only justice for me is to find these people who are supporting extremists and hang them in rows. Make them die for what they did.
'My son was such a good boy. Obedient, bright. When he was going to school this morning he came into my room and kissed me.'
One grade eight student consoled his mother on the phone that he was all right and unhurt - despite being sat with a bullet in his chest.
The student, Osama, told The Express Tribune that his parents could not reach him, because the surrounding roads had been blocked.
Instead, he calmly spoke with them on the phone, while trying to avoid being spotted by the gun-wielding militants.
Family bury a student killed in the Pakistan school siege
He said: 'I told mama on the phone that I am safe and not hit, but I had received a bullet right in the chest.'
Khalid Khan, 13, also told how he was in his first aid lesson in the main hall when two clean-shaven armed men came into room.
He said: 'hey opened fire at the students and then went out. The army doctor and soldiers managed to escape and we locked the doors from inside. But very soon they came, broke the doors and entered and again started firing.'
He added: 'They killed most of my class mates and then I didn’t know what happened as I was brought to the hospital.'
Pupil Ahmed Faraz, 14, said: ‘A lot of the children were under the benches, and a Pakistani Taliban member ordered, “Kill them”. They went into another room, and I ran to the exit.’
Others said the gunmen addressed each other in a language they could only recognise as either Arabic or Farsi – a possible testament to the Taliban’s network of hundreds of foreign fighters.
Another student, Jalal Ahmed, 15, could hardly speak, choking with tears, as Reuters approached him at one of the hospitals.
He said: 'I am a biochemistry student and I was attending a lecture in our main hall. There are five doors in the hall. After some time we heard someone kicking the back doors. There were gunshots but our teacher told us to be quiet and calmed us down. Then the men came with big guns.'
His father, Mushtaq Ahmed, said: 'He keeps screaming: "take me home, take me home, they will come back and kill me".'
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Pakistan's army spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa speaks to the media after the massacre
He said: 'Their sole purpose, it seems, was to kill those innocent kids. That's what they did'
Khan told how he tried to get up, but fell because of his injuries. Desperate to escape to safety, he crawled into the next room, where he the body of the school's office assistant body on fire.
He said: 'She was sitting on the chair with blood dripping from her body as she burned.'
Khan, who said he also saw the body of a soldier who worked at the school, then crawled behind a door to hide, where he lost consciousness.
He added: 'One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand and she was crying in pain.
'One terrorist then walked up to her and started shooting her until she stopped making any sound. All around me my friends were lying injured and dead.'
Attacking innocent children is the most abominable crime and such an attack will not be accepted at all
Amir Sohail Khan, 19, told MailOnline how he was at his college a few kilometres away from the school when he heard about the attack.
He said: 'I heard about it around 11 at my college. Then my uncle gave me a call and asked me to reach the school to check the whereabouts of my young cousins. One is seven and other is nine. It took me more than 45 minutes to reach the spot as army closed down all the roads and streets leading to school.'
He said that went to the main gate of the school around 12:30.
He continued: 'I saw a few soldiers trying to encircle a young man who was wearing a similar uniform to them. When soldiers tried to approach him, there was a huge blast. The other guy was one of the terrorists. This was such a horrible scene.
'For a few moments, I couldn't understand what was going on. I saw his body parts flying in the air after the blast. One of the soldiers was badly injured.'
Khan also saw terrorists firing indiscriminately in the class rooms on the second floor of the building.
He said: 'It is a huge double story building. I saw a terrorist getting into a classroom and firing like anything. Then I heard the cries and most of those crying became silent after a few minutes which means either they died or fainted.'
A soldier told him that the kids who had successfully managed to get out of school were in a nearby park.
Pakistani army personnel leave the school following the attack
Pakistani army personnel make their way to the military operation following the attack
He added: 'I went there but couldn't find my cousins among those kids. A soldier on told me that they might have died in the attack. I could not even imagine that. After, a few minutes I saw the elder one coming towards the park. I was never so happy and relieved to see him. He was weeping and shivering with fear. I held him to my chest. It was great feeling.
'Five minutes after him, my younger cousin also appeared. I lost my senses in happiness after seeing him. Our family is blessed. I saw mothers and fathers crying like mad at the gate of the school. I do not believe that we are so blessed.'
One grade eight student consoled his mother on the phone that he was all right and unhurt - despite being sat with a bullet in his chest.
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