Pakistan Mourns Its School Dead

Funerals for the victims began hours after the attack on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday The Pakistani city of Peshawar is burying its dead after a Taliban attack at a school killed at least 132 children and nine staff. Mourners crowded around coffins bedecked with flowers, after candlelit vigils were staged overnight. Gunmen had walked from class to class shooting students in the Pakistani Taliban's deadliest attack to date. PM Nawaz Sharif has declared three days of mourning over the massacre, which has sparked national outrage. He also announced an end to the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases. World leaders have also voiced disgust at the attack, which even the Afghan Taliban have criticised. Destruction left in the wake of the attack on the Peshawar school on 17 December 2014 Images taken by a BBC team inside a classroom show the level of destruction Principal's office after suicide bomb attack on 17 December 2014 An office belonging the school principal was hit by a suicide bomber It is a very eerie atmosphere. These are premises that should be alive at a time of day like this to the sound of hundreds of children who studied here and began school as normal yesterday. But it is desolate today. The army has been working through the night to clear the premises of explosives. I am standing now at the bottom of the white stone steps that lead up to the auditorium. There are blood stains running right down the steps and towards the auditorium itself. There is a child's shoe on one of the steps. The auditorium, where children were taking exams, was one of the places within the school grounds that the militants first targeted. As I peer in now, the chairs that the children were sitting on are upturned, the place has been turned upside down and again I can see the blood stains on the floor right around me. Separately, Pakistan's army says it launched air strikes at militants in the Khyber and North Waziristan areas, although it is not yet clear if this was a direct response to the school attack. An offensive against the militants has been going on since June. Mr Sharif also convened a meeting of all parliamentary parties in Peshawar to discuss the response. Classroom to classroom According to the army, Tuesday's attack was carried out by seven Taliban attackers, all wearing bomb vests. They cut through a wire fence to enter the school from the rear and attacked an auditorium where children were taking an exam. Funeral prayers of two school boys who were killed by Taliban militants at a school run by the Army, in Peshawar, Pakistan, 17 December 2014. Funerals for the victims began hours after the attack on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday Pakistani students attend a praying ceremony for the victims of Tuesday's school attack, at a school in Karachi, Pakistan, on 17 December 2014. Many schools in Pakistan closed as a mark of respect, with those remaining open holding special prayers Wounded Pakistani student Mehran rests on a hospital bed in Peshawar. 17 Dec 2014 Some wounded students remain at the main hospital in Peshawar A Pakistani resident reads the front pages of a selection of the country's main newspapers reporting a militant attack on an army-run school in Karachi on 17 December 2014. Tuesday's attack was the Pakistan Taliban's deadliest to date Gunmen then went from room to room at the military-run school, shooting pupils and teachers where they found them, survivors say. The siege at Peshawar's Army Public School, which teaches boys and girls from both military and civilian backgrounds, lasted eight hours. A total of 125 people were wounded, according to the army, before all seven attackers were killed. Hundreds of people were evacuated. The Pakistani Taliban sought to justify the attack by saying it was revenge for the army's campaign against them. The school was chosen as a target, the militants said, because their families had also suffered heavy losses. Download Flash Player now You need to install Flash Player to play this content. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif: "The anti-terrorism campaign in Pakistan will continue until terrorism is rooted out" In line with the Islamic custom, mourners began burying victims as darkness fell on Tuesday. The bier carrying the shrouded body of one teacher was strewn with flowers as men crowded around it. Soldiers stand guard at school gate in Peshawar. 17 Dec 2014 Soldiers are guarding the gates of the school in Peshawar after the siege Candles lit for victims in Karachi, Pakistan. 16 Dec 2014 There was anger at this candlelit vigil for the victims in Karachi, Pakistan Mohammad Hilal, a student in the 10th grade, was shot three times in his arm and legs when the gunmen stormed the school auditorium. "I think I passed out for a while. I thought I was dreaming. I wanted to move but felt paralysed. Then I came to and realised that actually two other boys had fallen on me. Both of them were dead," he told the BBC. Zulfiqar Ahmad, 45, the head of the mathematics department who was shot four times during the attack told the BBC he did not believe any of the 18 students in his class had survived. The victims are also being mourned elsewhere, with India's parliament observing a minute's silence in their honour. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his country's "deepest condolences". Source:bbc