Vigils have been held around the world in the memory of at least 22 people killed in a university terror attack in Charsadda in Pakistan.
Militants raided the Bacha Khan University campus on Wednesday, opening fire on students and faculty staff, aiming to cause maximum casualties during the poetry event that had been planned in the university. At least 22 people are confirmed to have died whilst many more are in hospital, although according to Pir Shahab, the superintendent of investigations, other victims are in a stable condition.
Protesters took to the streets in Karachi whilst candlelit vigils were held for victims in the city of Quetta. The attacks have sparked a widespread outrage in the country. Charsadda is less than 40 kilometres away from Peshawar, where only last year the Pakistani Taliban slayed 145 people, mostly children, in a gun attack on a school. However, it remains unclear as to which groups was responsible for this latest act of terrorism, as members of the Pakistani Taliban have issued conflicting statements. Reportedly, Umar Mansoor, a Taliban spokesman who is believed to be the mastermind of the Peshawar school attack has claimed that the university attack was in retaliation to military action against the Pakistani Taliban. Yet another spokesman for the group, Mohammad Khurrassani distanced the group from the attack.
Whilst responsibility for the attack is yet to be affirmatively placed on any terrorist group, military presence has been increased in the area as the government takes preventative measures to demonstrate its intolerance of terrorism in Pakistan.
