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Nine dead in Taliban attack on Pakistan school
At least nine people were killed and dozens of others wounded when Taliban gunmen stormed a school in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar Friday, officials said.
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Pakistani security personnel take position outside an Agriculture Training Institute after an attack by Taliban militants in Peshawar on December 1, 2017.
Taliban militants stormed a training institute in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar Friday, injuring at least seven people, as the country marked the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed. (AFP/Abdul Majeed)
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t least nine people were killed and dozens of others wounded when Taliban gunmen stormed a school in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar Friday, officials said.
"We have received six dead bodies and 18 injured, two of them are in critical condition," a spokeswoman for the Hayatabad Medical Complex, Ishrat Bibi, told AFP.
Another government-run hospital, the Kyber Medical Complex, said it had received three dead bodies and was treating 20 injured people.
The militants are believed to remain inside the compound. An AFP reporter at the site saw a helicopter hovering over the area and heard gunshots from inside the building.
A residential area also within the training institute compound is being evacuated.
Wasim Riaz, a senior police official, said seven people injured so far have been shifted to the government-run Lady Reading Hospital.
A spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Muhammad Khurasani, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to AFP.
"Our mujahids have attacked the building because it was used as office for ISI, God willing our fighters will fight till the last drop of blood," he said, referring to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency.
The area where the incident occurred is a hub for educational institutions in the city including the university of Peshawar.
An interior ministry official told AFP that cellular networks have been suspended in various cities across the country for security reasons.
The incident comes amid tight security across Pakistan as it celebrates the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.
Security was also tight after weeks-long anti-blasphemy protests in Islamabad that saw seven killed and hundreds wounded in clashes with police.
Violence erupted over the weekend after police and paramilitary forces launched a bungled attempt to clear the sit-in, igniting fresh demonstrations in cities across the country, including in Lahore and Karachi.
The protests were finally ended just days ago under a military-brokered deal.
In December 2014, a Taliban attack on the army-run school in Peshawar killed 151 people, mostly schoolchildren.
