The Tragedy Of Taliban Terror In Peshawar School In Today's History, 16 December 2014

JAKARTA - On December 16, 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani branch of the Taliban, terrorized the Army Public School in Peshawar City, Pakistan. They entered the school and opened fire on the school staff and children. The incident killed 149 people, including 132 of whom were schoolchildren aged eight to 18.

The militants, all foreign nationals, included one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans. It was the fourth deadliest school massacre in the world.

At the time of the incident, the school was hosting more than 1,000 staff members and students; many of his students were the children of military personnel. The terrorists started their attack in the morning by climbing the back wall of the school. According to some reports, they bombed their own vehicle to distract the school guards.

Entering the main assembly hall, where a large group of students were learning about first aid, the attackers continued to shoot indiscriminately. The attackers, armed with grenades and automatic rifles, then went into the classroom, where they focused fire on the teacher and older children. According to official sources, they only kill and do not take hostages.

A rescue operation was launched by the special forces of the Pakistan Army Special Services Group (SSG), which killed all six terrorists and rescued 960 people. Several soldiers were injured during the rescue. The attack is thought to have lasted about eight hours. During the attack, frightened parents gathered at the gates of the school compound.

The attack came after a series of high-level attacks. Even when many of the victims had been buried, other TTP insurgents were still carrying out an attack on a bank in Helmand province, Afghanistan, killing 10 people.

Citing the Independent, Pakistan's Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif and leaders from various political and religious parties united in their strong condemnation of the attack. They promised to do more to eliminate terrorism.

For days after the shooting, Pakistanis in major cities held candlelight vigils. Sadness turned to anger when he took to the streets to demand the stance of the Pakistani government and most of Pakistan's pro-Taliban religious leaders.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif then ordered the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism-related cases. The moratorium applies to civilians, and a soldier was executed in 2012. Judges who continued to pass sentences saw some 8,000 people sentenced to death.

Four insurgents found involved in the shootings in Peshawar were hanged in 2015 and hundreds of other detainees were also sentenced to death when the law was reinstated. Another actor believed to be behind the attack, Omar Khorasani, was killed in a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan in October 2017.

The prime minister also echoed army commanders' vows to step up military action against Taliban strongholds in the federally administered tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is an association of various militant groups that oppose the Pakistani state and want to implement Sharia law. Most Taliban insurgents are believed to be from groups sponsored, assisted and abetted in some way by the state.

Following the atrocities of the attack in Peshawar, Pakistan's PM acknowledged the country appeared ambivalent towards extremists. It is widely believed that Pakistan's intelligence services support militant groups that help fulfill their own goals. Pakistan's PM has finally vowed to end differences of opinion between the "good" and "evil" Taliban.

“All the Taliban (people) are bad Taliban. Extremism of any kind – thought, action, religious or political extremism – is bad. We must eliminate them wherever we find them," said PM Sharif. He also vowed to "regulate" Islamic schools and acknowledged that unregulated education could be 'very dangerous.'

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