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Old 17-12-14, 02:26   #2
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Default Re: VIDEOs-School Massacre-141 Dead-Teacher Burnt Alive

CONCLUSION...


Quote:
'WE WILL NOT BE BEATEN BY THE SAVAGES' VOWS PRIME MINISTER

Pakistan’s Prime Minister has vowed his country would not be intimidated by Taliban ‘savages’.
Clearly moved as he visited the scene of the horrific shooting yesterday, Nawaz Sharif declared: ‘This is a national tragedy unleashed by savages. These were my kids. This is my loss. This is the nation’s loss.’
Last night he said military operations in the region would be stepped up.
Pakistani opposition leader and former cricket captain Imran Khan condemned the attack as ‘utter barbarism.’
It is believed Peshawar, the gateway to Pakistan’s tribal areas and the Khyber Pass leading to Afghanistan, was targeted because it was a base for army missions against the Taliban.
The semi-autonomous tribal areas that border Afghanistan have for years been a hideout for Islamist militants – including Al Qaeda and the home grown Taliban.
A military operation in the nearby North Waziristan tribal area was launched from Peshawar in June with the aim of targeting all militant groups in the region.
Hundreds are said to have been killed by the army and in air strikes, including women, children and innocent villagers.
Yesterday’s attack was a response to that military action, but Mr Sharif has promised the army would continue operations in the Peshawar region against the Taliban and its supporters.
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.
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: 'They 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.'
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.'





Pakistani snipers take position near the school attacked by Taliban gunmen





Special forces soldiers surrounded the school after it was attacked by seven gunmen






A Pakistani soldier takes up a position above a road near the school


His father, Mushtaq Ahmed, said: 'He keeps screaming: "take me home, take me home, they will come back and kill me".'
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.
'I saw my own brother die, he was shot in the throat.'


Quote:
Their sole purpose, it seems, was to kill those innocent kids. That's what they did
Asim Bajwa
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.'





A Pakistani girl, who was injured in the attack, is rushed to a hospital in Peshawar






A hospital security guard helps a student injured in a shootout at a military school in Peshawar






Pakistani security forces takes up positions on a road leading to the Army Public School



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.
'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.
A local hospital said the dead and wounded it had seen were aged between 10 and 20 years old.





Ambulances drive away from the military run school, which was attacked by the Taliban in the early hours





School was stormed by six gunmen in military fatigues , it was reported







Earlier, at least three explosions were heard inside the high school, and a MailOnline journalist at the scene said he heard heavy gunfire.


A security official speaking on condition of anonymity said two helicopter gunships are on site, but had been prevented from firing on the militants because students and teachers were inside the building.
Outside, as the helicopters rumbled overhead, police struggled to hold back distraught parents who were trying to break past a security cordon and get into the school.
Akhtar Ali, who works out for the UN, was weeping outside.
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.'





A man in charge of a blood bank at a local hospital refuses people who are insisting to donate blood for victims of the attack






Donors wait in line at their to donate their blood to victims after the Taliban attack on the school



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.'
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.'





An armored personnel carrier moves toward the school






Pakistani army troops arrive to take on the Taliban attackers



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, my 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.'





An army helicopter flies over the Army Public School that was attacked earlier today




Pakistan massacre: Father weeps for lost child





Mushtaq Ghani, the spokesman for the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told journalist Aamir Iqbal: 'At least six militants wearing military uniforms entered the school from back wall of the school that is known as 'Army Public School'.
'There is a graveyard attached to back wall of the school that is run by Pakistani Military, most of the students studying in this school were children of military officers.
'Attacking innocent children is the most abominable crime and such an attack will not be accepted at all.
'This can be the reaction of ongoing military operations against terrorists in the North Waziristan area of Pakistan.'
Student Shuja khan claimed that 'the attack took place the time a senior military officer started his address during the function that was going on inside the school'.
He added: 'I am not sure but he was the Corp Commander Peshawar who when he started his speech terrorists opened fire on the students sitting in the function.'



Quote:
THE PAKISTAN TALIBAN: A HISTORY OF SLAUGHTER

Over 1,000 schools have been destroyed by the Pakistan Taliban since 2010, but today's massacre isn't just the worst atrocity carried out on a school, but on any target.
In May 2010, members of the organisation stormed two mosques packed with worshippers, throwing grenades and indiscriminately opening fire. The ensuring shootout and hostage situation left 94 dead and more than 120 injured.
Up to 2,000 worshippers were thought to have been in the two mosques in Lahore, Pakistan's second city, when the two groups of at least seven gunmen and three suicide bombers struck as traditional Friday prayers ended.
In June this year, the Pakistan Taliban killed 29 people in a terrifying siege on Karachi Airport when ten gunmen dressed as Airport Security Force officials stormed Terminal One.
Armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, they triggered a gun battle that raged for 10 hours and left dozens dead and wounded.
Afterwards, the group claimed the attack was revenge for the death of its leader Shahidullah Shahid. It was believed they militants intended to destroy or hijack aircraft before they were stopped by the security personnel and commandos.
Angered at US drone strikes on its mountain retreats, in June last year a group of Taliban gunmen slaughtered 10 tourists at the base of Nanga Parbat, in an attack that sent shockwaves through the climbing community.
The gunmen were wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scouts, a paramilitary police force that patrols the area. They abducted two local guides to find their way to the remote base camp - one of which was killed in the shooting.
The Taliban has also attempted to enforce its opposition to women's rights to education through violence. In January last year, five female teachers were massacred when militants ambushed a van transporting them home from their jobs at a community centre.
The teachers and two health workers - one man and one woman - were killed in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the militants on motorcycles opened fire with automatic weapons.
It was in this region that a Taliban gunman shot 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai in the head last October for criticizing the militants and promoting girls' education. Last week she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
However, the bloodshed in Pakistan pales in comparison to the violence perpetrated by the neighbouring Afghanistan Taliban.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the organisation has been held responsible for several massacres in the cities of Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif that left thousands dead.



Taliban gunmen stormed a military school in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar






Taking no chances: Pakistani security forces form a perimeter around the school



A gloating Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the outrage even before the siege was over.
Mohammad Khorasani, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban group - known as Tehrik-i-Taliban - said: 'It's a gift for those who thought they have crushed us in their so called military operation in North Waziristan.
'They [the Pakistani military] were always wrong about our capabilities, We are still able to carry out major attacks. Today was just the trailer.
'Six of our Mujahideen, including three suicide bombers took part in this attack and with the grace of almighty they all executed the plan very accurately.
'We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females. We want them to feel the pain.'

The school is close to a military base and the children of many officers and soldiers go there.
More than 100 pupils were being treated in hospital last night and the death total is expected to rise
The military intelligence agencies have now arrested prayer leaders of Behari and Aabshar colony, which is adjacent to the Army Public School, along with 27 other suspected people from the nearby streets.
One of the prayer leaders is said to be Khaliq jan from Darra Adam Khel, some 23 kilometers South of Peshawar. All the arrested people have been taken away to an unknown location for interrogation.
Sources have said that even the senior figures of the provincial government have not been informed about the identification of the detainees. Senior army officials in Peshawar, however, know who has been arrested.





A soldier escorts schoolchildren after they were rescued from the Army Public School






Hundreds of students were rescued but parents faced an agonising wait to find out if their loved ones had survived






A plainclothes security officer escorts students rescued from a nearby school






Schoolchildren cross a road as they move away from the military run school






School children rescued from the attack are taken away by Pakistani soldiers



It is believed that terrorists have been provided refuge by locals in streets adjacent to the school.
As night fell, officials could sill be seen in the streets, trying to piece together information.
The insurgents had inside knowledge that wives of certain army officials were teachers in the school.
Wife of Subedar Abbass was torched to death, while wives of Brigadier Tariq and Major Jamshed were also killed.
A son of Subedar Mazhar, who was student, was also killed when he was identified by terrorists.
It also emerged this afternoon that terrorists have codes for every city of Pakistan and every government installation.
The code of Islamabad is Kafristan - city of infidels.
Sources said agencies had information about planned attacks at English medium schools in Islamabad, but not in Peshawar.
This information was obtained by tracing a phone call of one of the terrorists. But they attacked a school in Peshawar.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called the massacre a 'national tragedy' and is on his way to the area.
Prime Minister David Cameron today said the Taliban attack on the military school was a dark, dark day for humanity'.
Denouncing the militants’ Islamist ideology as a 'perversion' of Muslim belief, Mr Cameron said the fight against terror would be 'the struggle of our generation, both here in our own country and around the world'.



Quote:
THE SCENE OF THE MASSACRE: A BURGEONING PESHAWAR SCHOOL The school on Peshawar's Warsak Road at the centre of today's massacre was established in 1992 for boys and girls of both military personnel and civilians.
Although it was originally founded in 1992, within two years, it had rapidly grown into a large institution with hundreds of students extending from primary through to high school.
It was in 1994 that it was formally registered within the Army Public Schools and Colleges System (APSACS).
It was popular with students for its extra-curricular clubs - these included journalism, sports and debating programmes.
Students were today tweeting its motto - 'I shall rise and shine' - in a show of solidarity with those killed.
It is just one of 22 schools throughout the Peshawar region that are part of the APSACS chain.
Nationwide, there are 146 of these institutions, with 134,296 registered students and almost 8,000 teachers on the books.
This makes the system the largest contributor of national integration in the country.
However, fears have been raised that institutions such as schools and churches are becoming a 'soft target' for militants intent on waging war against the government.
Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst, said the attack was intended to weaken the military's resolve.
'It is both tactical and strategic. The militants know they won't be able to strike at the heart of the military, they don't have the capacity because the army are prepared.
'So they are going for soft targets. These attacks have a great psychological impact.'



Details were sketchy in the unfolding situation and it was unclear what was going on inside the school and if any of the students were taken hostage






Mohammad Khorasani, the spokesman for Pakistani's Taliban Fazal Ullah group, accepted responsibility for the attack





A man talks on a phone, with his arm around a student, during the attack



Speaking to a panel of Parliament’s most senior backbench MPs at the House of Commons Liaison Committee, the Prime Minister said: 'The scale of what has happened in Pakistan I think simply defies belief.
'It is a dark, dark day for humanity when something on this scale happens with no justification.'
He added: 'There is not a belief system in the world that can justify this sort of appalling act.
'I think what this shows is the worldwide threat that is posed by this poisonous ideology of extremist Islamist terrorism.
'It is nothing to do with one of the world’s great religions - Islam, which is a religion of peace. This is a perversion.
'But we have to recognise the scale of what we face - in this country but also, as we see, around the world. And we must with our allies use everything we have in our power to defeat it.'
He added: 'I say to this committee, as I’ve said before, this is, I think, going to be the struggle of our generation, both here in our own country and around the world.
'And we are going to have to show every bit of resilience that we’ve shown facing similar problems and challenges we’ve faced in the past.'






Taliban gunmen took hundreds of students hostage in this military-run school






Heavily armed Pakistani troops arrive at the scene



Quote:
TIME-LINE OF TERROR

A look at some of the major attacks in Pakistan in recent years:
2014
- Nov. 2: Taliban suicide bomber kills 60 in attack on a paramilitary checkpoint close to the Wagah border crossing with India.
- June 9: Ten gunmen disguised as police guards attack a terminal at Pakistan's busiest airport with machine guns and a rocket launcher, killing 13 people during a five-hour siege.
- 8 June: A suicide bomber in the country's southwest killed at least 23 Shiite pilgrims returning from Iran.
2013
-Sept. 22: A twin suicide bomb blast in a Peshawar church kills at least 85 people.
-Aug. 17: Heavily armed Taliban fighters blast their way into a Pakistani air force base, leaving two security officers and nine insurgents dead.
-June 22: 10 Foreign climbers killed by militants on Nanga Parbat, ninth highest mountain in world.
-March 3: Explosion in Karachi kills 45 Shiites outside a mosque.
- Jan. 10: Bombing in Shiite area of southern city of Quetta kills 81 people, wounds 120.
2012
- Nov. 22: A Taliban suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim procession in the city of Rawalpindi, near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people.
- Jan. 5: Taliban shoot and kill 15 Pakistani frontier police after holding them hostage for more than a year.
2011
- Sept. 20: Militants kill at least 26 Shiites on a bus near the southern city of Quetta.
- May 23: Pakistani commandos recapture a major naval base from Taliban attackers who struck to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid. Militants destroyed two U.S.-supplied surveillance aircraft and killed at least 10 personnel.
- May 13: A pair of Taliban suicide bombers attacks paramilitary police recruits in Shabqadar, killing 80, also in retaliation for bin Laden's killing.
2010
- Nov. 5: A suicide bomber strikes a Sunni mosque in Darra Adam Khel in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 67 during Friday prayers.
- Sept. 1: A triple Taliban suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim procession kills 65 in the southwestern city of Quetta.
- July 9: Two suicide bombers kills 102 people in the Mohmand tribal region.
- July 2: Suicide bombers attack Pakistan's most revered Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 47 people.
- May 29: Two militant squads armed with hand grenades, suicide vests and assault rifles attack two mosques of the Ahmadi minority sect in Lahore, killing 97.
- March 13: Two suicide bombers targeting army vehicles in Lahore kill more than 55 people.
- Jan. 1: A suicide bomber drives a truckload of explosives into a volleyball field in Lakki Marwat district in the northwest, killing at least 97 people.
2009
- Dec. 28: Bomb blast kills at least 44 at a Shiite procession in the southern city of Karachi.
- Dec. 7: Two bombs kill 48 at a market in the eastern city of Lahore, while a suicide bomber kills 10 people outside a Peshawar courthouse.
- Oct. 9: A suicide car bomber hits a busy market area in Peshawar, killing 53.
- May 27: A suicide car bomber targets police and intelligence offices in the eastern city of Lahore, killing about 30 people.
- March 27: A suicide bomber demolishes a packed mosque near the northwestern town of Jamrud, killing about 50.
Mr Cameron had earlier Tweeted : ‘The news from Pakistan is deeply shocking. It's horrifying that children are being killed simply for going to school.’
And US president Barack Obama condemned the ‘odious’ and ‘horrific’ Taliban attack while reiterating its support for the Pakistan government's efforts ‘to combat terrorism and extremism.’
Education campaigner and Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai said: 'I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold-blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us.'
'The United States strongly condemns senseless and inhumane attacks on innocent students and educators, and stands in solidarity with the people of Pakistan, and all who fight the menace of terrorism. Few have suffered more at the hands of terrorists and extremists than the people of Pakistan,' U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson said in a statement.

The Pakistani Taliban have targeted security forces, checkpoints, military bases and airports, but attacks on civilian targets with no logistical significance are relatively rare.
In September, 2013, dozens of people, including many children, were killed in an attack on a church, also in Peshawar.
Meanwhile, Russell Brand faced an online backlash after accusing the U.S. of terrorism as the attack in Pakistan unfolded.
The comedian posted on Twitter a link to a YouTube video in which he speaks to former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg.
Alongside the link he tweeted: 'The people who do 'terror' best are the people who decide what 'terror' is.'

But others on the microblogging website reacted angrily to the self-styled revolutionary, who uses the handle @rustyrockets.
They highlighted how his tweet coincided with news that more than 100 children had been killed in the Taliban assault.
Nate Anderson wrote: 'Bad timing given what's just happened in Pakistan dude. Bad bad timing'.
Colin Wright, a professor of International Relations, added: '@rustyrockets you do talk some crap at times. Not all the time but I'm seeing more and more of it. You tweet this while Pakistan unfolds.'
Another Twitter user Mark Lott wrote: 'I guess you haven't seen the news from Pakistan today yet. @rustyrockets'.
Brand's interview with Moazzam Begg appears to have taken place at his flat in Hoxton, east London.

The YouTube video was titled: 'CIA Torture - Guantanamo Bay Prisoner Lifts Lid: Russell Brand The Trews (E211)'.
Begg, from Birmingham, was held by the U.S. government in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and was released without charge in 2005.

Russell Brand recently faced criticism on Twitter when he tweeted the mobile phone number of a reporter who had requested an interview.

The Peshawar school massacre came as Pakistani Taliban insurgents launched a massive attack in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province.
Thousands of militants crossed the border from Pakistan and stormed Dangam district, forcing local security to call in the help of the Afghan National Army, who have so far killed 18 insurgents and wounded 28 others during intense firefights.
About 2,000 insurgents are involved in the battle said Kunar province's police chief, Abdul Habib Saidkhail, who added that almost of those killed or injured were of Pakistani origin.

The Pakistani Taliban is an ally of the better known Taliban over the border in Afghanistan, but operates as an entirely separate organisation.
In September the Pakistani Taliban declared its support for the Islamic State and vowed to send fighters to assist the terror group as it was wages bloody war in Syria and Iraq.

'Oh our brothers, we are proud of you in your victories. We are with you in your happiness and your sorrow,' Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement issued to mark the Muslim holy festival of Eid al-Adha.
'In these troubled days, we call for your patience and stability, especially now that all your enemies are united against you. Please put all your rivalries behind you,' he added.
'All Muslims in the world have great expectations of you. We are with you, we will provide you with Mujahideen [fighters] with every possible support,' he said.


Quote:
PAKISTAN WAS BRACED FOR BLOOD THIRSTY ATTACK BUT HIS HORRIFYING ASSAULT ON INNOCENTS IS A SIGN OF TALIBAN WEAKNESS Pakistan has been braced for this kind of bloodthirsty attack. It is the savage response to a military crackdown on the group's tribal heartlands, which claims to have wiped out hundreds of militants.
This is, after all, a terror group that has made widespread use of suicide bombing, attacked hundreds of schools, massacred teachers, shot a schoolgirl who dared show defiance to them and even killed hundreds of worshippers at mosques and shrines.
Yet it is also a reaction to shifting geopolitics in the region since the election of a new president in Afghanistan, which threatens the Taliban even in its traditional stronghold. Analysts say the sickening slaughter of schoolchildren symbolises its sudden weakness.
Clearly it is designed to send a message written in blood to the military that claims to have cleared the Taliban from much of its regional stronghold in the country. But it is hard to think of a softer target than a school filled with army children and, for all the horror, may indicate the success of concerted attacks on the long-feared terrorist organisation.
As one expert said, this cruel shift in tactics to such an easy target is designed to make a spectacular statement with the least possible cost for the Taliban.
For years Islamabad resisted attacking the fanatics in North Waziristan, on the north-west frontier with Afghanistan. Both countries blamed their neighbours for harbouring terrorists - with strong justification.
But in recent months Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the militant's umbrella group that has killed thousands of people in Pakistan, has come under new pressure.
First a US drone strike killed long-haired leader Hakimullah Mehsud late last year - and his successor has struggled to hold together the organisation as it came under fierce attack.
Splits have been evident with some senior figures pledging allegiance to the leader of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, while others recently launched a splinter group of al-Qa'ida in the Indian sub-continent.
Bombing raids were launched from the air on the Taliban's north-western strongholds in February. These were followed four months later by Operation Zarb-e-Azb, which has since killed more than 1,600 militants.
The recent election of Ashraf Ghani as president of Afghanistan, combined with improved relations between Islamabad and Washington as well as with Kabul, has made life tougher for the terrorists on both sides of the border.
Over the past fortnight there have been a series of counter-insurgency assaults on the Taliban in Afghanistan. On one day this month a US drone killed nine leading militants and a senior commander captured by US troops in Afghanistan was handed over to Islamabad.
'This is something new - Afghanistan and Pakistan seem to have finally realised they have a common enemy,' said Gareth Price, senior research fellow with Chatham House think tank. 'Lashing out at schoolchildren in this way is a sign of weakness.
The TTP made it clear this horrific attack in Peshawar was a response to the military operation and the wiping out of its fighters.
There have been other recent outrages in reaction to the assaults on its heartland. In June ten militants armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide bomb vests mounted a raid on Karachi airport that left 28 people dead and damaged several planes.
Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst, said this latest attack was designed to weaken military resolve. 'They are going for soft targets,' he said. 'These attacks have a great psychological impact.'
Although Pakistan has long worried about cracking down on militants, fearing the kind of bloodbaths as seen in Karachi and Peshawar, its operations have led to a substantial fall in the number of terrorist attacks in the country.
Yet Naveed Ahmad, an investigative journalist and security analyst, said the country had been expecting a backlash. 'These people have been looking for an opportunity and the trouble is our security is so superficial, which makes it easier for them.
'No-one is ever held accountable for the security failures. So we saw no-one fired after the airport attack, for instance.'
Others queried whether even this attack on a school, killing scores of innocent pupils, will change attitudes.
Two months ago 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai - shot in the head by Taliban militants - became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaigning on female education. Yet the honour received scant mention in much of the Pakistan media, criticism from prominent figures in the country and scathing attacks on social media.
IAN BIRRELL



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Pakistan Massacre: Father Weeps for Lost Child





Rest in Peace with The Angels - Innocent Children and their Teachers....




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