Pakistan mourns university attack victims
Charsadda: Pakistan observed a day of mourning today after the bloodbath in Bacha Khan University in this northwestern town where militants killed 21 people, mostly students, before being eliminated by the army.
The national flag was flying on half-mast at all official buildings and all national ceremonies were cancelled. Special prayers were held at several places for the victims.
The provincial Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has declared three-day mourning starting today.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that his government was determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from Pakistan.
The Prime Minister has directed all security agencies to hunt down the patrons and financiers of Charsada terror attack, a Prime Minister’s Office statement said.
There were over 3,000 students inside the university along with an additional 600 guests who had arrived to attend a poetic symposium to mark the death anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan who died on January 20, 1988.
The attack that killed 19 students, a professor and a staffer was a grim reminder of an assault on an army-run school in Peshawar on December, 2014 that killed 150 people, mostly students.
At least 17 suspects, including five facilitators of the varsity attack, were arrested during search operations today in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, sources said.
