Terrorism – Page 11 – Aboard The Democracy Train

February 16, 2015

Suicide Attackers Kill 19 in Assault on a Shiite Mosque in Pakistan

Peshawar Shia mosque blast (Credit: ibtimes.com)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Heavily armed militants killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 40 after they stormed into a Shiite mosque during Friday Prayer in a suburb of Peshawar, the main city in northwestern Pakistan, doctors and officials said.

The assault was the most fearsome show of violence in the Peshawar area since a Taliban attack on a school in December that killed about 150 people, and it offered a chilling reminder of the continuing threat from militants in Pakistan despite a concerted crackdown by the security forces.

The police said that at least four gunmen wearing vests rigged with explosives and lobbing grenades entered the crowded Imamia Mosque in Hayatabad, an upscale suburb that is adjacent to the Khyber tribal district, a notorious militant sanctuary.

Security guards at the mosque shot and killed one attacker, but three others made it into the main hall. They fired guns and flung grenades into a crowd of worshipers before detonating their vests, the provincial police chief, Nasir Khan Durrani, told reporters at the scene.

Policemen surveyed the scene after Taliban suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, while victims were rushed to the hospital.

The number of casualties would have been higher if several grenades had not failed to explode, Mr. Durrani said.

A United Nations employee was among the dead. In a statement, the United Nations coordinator in Pakistan, Timo Pakkala, condemned the attack, saying, “Any violent act targeting minorities is totally unacceptable.” He also called on the government to foster tolerance in the country as it fights Islamist militancy.

Some witnesses said the attackers were wearing black police uniforms. Outside the mosque stood the charred remains of a vehicle they had used to reach the area and had set on fire moments before the assault.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack through a spokesman who said it was in revenge for the execution of a convicted militant known as Dr. Usman, who was hanged on Dec. 19. “This is a continuation of blood for blood,” he said in a statement emailed to journalists. “The government should expect further, and stronger, reaction.”

In a video sent from the same email address, a Taliban commander identified as Omar Mansoor, who also claimed responsibility for the Peshawar school attack in December, issued further warnings to the government. “Either Pakistan will become your graveyard, or God’s law, Shariah, will be implemented,” he said.

Government officials have blamed a Taliban-affiliated group for a suicide bomb attack on Jan. 30 at a Shiite mosque in Shikarpur, in the southern province of Sindh, that killed 61 people.

That attack was Pakistan’s deadliest sectarian assault since February 2013, when a bombing at a market in Quetta, the capital of the western province of Baluchistan, killed 89 people.

But government officials at the scene of Friday’s attack described it as a likely response to continuing Pakistani military operations in the nearby tribal belt, which have been stepped up since the assault at the Peshawar school in December.

Pakistan’s Parliament has also empowered the army to start trying Taliban suspects in military courts.

The government lifted a moratorium on executions in the wake of the Peshawar attack and on Friday hanged two convicted prisoners, bringing the number of executions since mid-December to 24.

Unlike those executed earlier, the two men hanged on Friday had not been convicted under Pakistan’s terrorism laws, a fact that Amnesty International criticized as a dangerous escalation by the country’s authorities.

“The death penalty is always a human rights violation, but the serious fair trial concerns in Pakistan make its use even more troubling,” the group said in a statement.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s military spokesman told reporters that the security forces had arrested 12 militants linked to the school attack but that six others, including the Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, remained at large.

Pakistani officials have said they believe Mr. Fazlullah is hiding in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, but they have credited Afghan officials with helping pursue him, in a sign of thawing relations between the two countries.

Declan Walsh contributed reporting from London.

February 12, 2015

British Jihadi, Imran Khawaja jailed after faking his own death to flee ISIS

Imran Khawaja (Credit independent.co.uk)

A British jihadi nicknamed “Barbie” who sneaked back to the UK from a training camp in Syria has been jailed for 12 years.

Imran Khawaja, a “poster boy” for an Isil-linked terror group, got fed up with the conditions in the war-torn region, so he faked his own death by falsely spreading rumours online and fled for the UK, a court heard.

But the 27-year-old bodybuilder was caught trying to re-enter the UK at Dover and was today handed a 17-year extended sentence, 12 of which will be spent in custody.

Woolwich Crown Court heard that Khawaja – who has links with British hostage executioner Jihadi John – had complained of a lack of toileteries, cocoa butter and condoms for the “war booty” during his six-month stint with the Rayat al-Tawheed (RAT) insurgents in the Middle East last year.

ICSR / King’s College London

Extremist: Imran Khawaja got fed up with the conditions in Syria

During the two-day sentencing hearing, the court was shown disturbing footage of Khawaja reaching into a bag of severed heads before pulling one out with his bare hand, getwestlondon.co.uk reports.

The 27-year-old can be heard saying: “Heads, kuffars [non-believers]. Disgusting.”

However, a psychological assessment of the defendant concluded he had restricted cognitive ability, a lack of critical thinking, poor concentration and an IQ that was within the lowest 12% in the country.

As a consequence he was found to be vulnerable to manipulation and radicalisation.

Khawaja travelled to Syria in January 2014 and became a leading figure within Rayat al–T awheed (RAT), a group linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the court was told.

By the end of May the group had released an image of the defendant, who pleaded guilty to terror charges last month, claiming that he had been killed in battle.

He was, in fact, on his way back to the UK, being driven by his co-defendant and cousin Tahir Bhatti, 45, from Watford.

In text messages read out in court, Khawaja – who was also known as Imz, Iron, Immi, Touchi and Cashew – complained of not having moisturiser and toilet paper while in Syria.

He had demanded cocoa butter and toiletries as well as “condoms for the war booty” and complained when his friends failed to send it.

Psychological assessment: Jihadi fighter Imran Khawaja has an IQ that within the lowest 12% of the UK Woolwich Crown Court was told

The court heard that Khawaja’s family repeatedly begged him to come home even cajoling him with images of Nando’s food.

He lied and told them he was doing charity work, telling his sister that he cared more for Allah than his family.

His sister replied on many occasions saying that “their parents’ hearts were breaking” and that if “he didn’t come home she would come and get him”.

In messages home, Khawaja put pressure on his friends and family to send him money because “guns, cars cost money” and he wanted a “Rambo gun” and needed “shooters”.

When that failed, prosecutor Brian Altman QC told the court that Khawaja decided, in May 2014, to briefly come back to the UK to sort funds out himself.

He was stopped by port officials at Dover while trying to regain entry to the UK with his cousin Bhatti.

Jihadi: Southall bodybuilder Imran Khawaja was jailed for 12 years

In a letter to the court, Khawaja apologised for his actions and urged other young Britons not to make the same mistakes he had.

In the note to the judge, he said: “I will just like to apologise for the laws I have broke [sic]. I am sincerely sorry. I have let my country, my family and my community down.

“I have nightmares about Syria. I am lucky to be alive. I would hate to see the young men of Britain to make the same mistake I made and say to them ‘do not get attracted by the propaganda’.”

Jailing Khawaja at Woolwich Crown Court today, judge Jeremy Baker handed him a 17-year term for the most serious offence.

It will comprise a 12-year custodial term before being released on licence.

He will serve a minimum of eight years.

February 2, 2015

Blast at Shi’ite mosque in southern Pakistan’s Shikarpur city kills scores

Lakkhi Dar, Shikarpur (Credit: presstv.ir)

SHIKARPUR, Pakistan Jan 30 – At least 49 people were killed in a powerful explosion at a crowded Shi’ite mosque in Pakistan during Friday prayers, the latest sectarian attack to hit the South Asian nation.

Police said the blast was caused either by a suicide bomber or an explosive device which went off when the mosque was at its fullest on Friday afternoon in the center of Shikarpur, a city in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh.

Radical Sunni Islamist groups often target mosques frequented by minority Shi’ites, whom they see as infidels.

Earlier this month, six people were killed and 17 wounded by a suicide bomber outside a Shi’ite mosque in the city of Rawalpindi, also after Friday prayers.

“We are trying to ascertain the nature of the blast,” said Shikarpur police chief Saqib Ismail Memon. “A bomb disposal squad is examining the scene.”

Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo, head of the regional civil administration, told Reuters that the death toll had reached 49.

In chaotic scenes that followed the blast, part of the mosque collapsed after the explosion, burying some of the wounded under rubble. Bystanders pulled people from the debris and piled them into cars for the journey to hospital.

Locals said there were not enough ambulances and the army later sent additional vehicles to transport people to hospitals.

The atmosphere was tense in Shikarpur after the explosion, with shops boarded up and crowds of emotional residents massing outside hospitals.
“The entire city is in lockdown and there is tension in the air. There is a heavy police presence and the Rangers are patrolling the city,” said Pariyal Marri, a local resident.

“THEY ARE OUR ENEMIES”
Jundullah, a splinter group of Pakistan’s Taliban which last year pledged support for the Islamic State group based in Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility.

“Our target was the Shia mosque … They are our enemies,” said Fahad Marwat, a Jundullah spokesman. He did not elaborate.
Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, a Shi’ite organization, has called for a province-wide strike on Saturday in protest.

Sain Rakhio Merani, a regional police official, said the blast was probably caused by a bomb, although Pakistani television quoted some residents as saying they saw a man wearing a suicide vest.

The attack came as Pakistan tries to adopt new measures to tackle Islamist extremists following a massacre of 134 children last month at an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The government has pledged to crack down on all militant groups, reintroduce the death penalty, set up military courts to speed convictions and widen its military campaign in lawless tribal areas.

Yet Pakistan’s religious minorities, among them Ahmadis, Christians and Hindus, say the government is doing little to alleviate their daily struggle against humiliation, discrimination and violence.

Shi’ites make up about a fifth of Pakistan’s mainly Sunni population of around 180 million. More than 800 Shi’ites have been killed in attacks since the beginning of 2012, according to Human Rights Watch.

(Additional reporting by Syed Raza Hassan in Islamabad and Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

January 11, 2015

Muslim, Jewish & Christian heads of state join mass Paris march to honor victims

Million march in Paris (Credit: arabnews.com)

PARIS, Jan 11: Dozens of world leaders including Muslim and Jewish statesmen linked arms leading hundreds of thousands of French citizens on Sunday in an unprecedented march under high security to pay tribute to victims of militant attacks.

President Francois Hollande and leaders from Germany, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Britain and the Palestinian territories among others, moved off from the central Place de la Republique ahead of a sea of French and other flags.

Giant letters attached to a statue in the square spelt out the word Pourquoi?” (Why?) and small groups sang the “La Marseillaise” national anthem.

Some 2,200 police and soldiers patrolled Paris streets to protect marchers from would-be attackers, with police snipers on rooftops and plain-clothes detectives mingling with the crowd.

City sewers were searched ahead of the vigil and underground train stations around the march route are due to be closed down.

The silent march – which may prove the largest seen in modern times through Paris – reflected shock over the worst militant assault on a European city in nine years.

For France, it raised questions of free speech, religion and security, and beyond French frontiers it exposed the vulnerability of states to urban attacks.

Two of the gunmen had declared allegiance to al Qaeda in Yemen and a third to the militant Islamic State.

“Paris is today the capital of the world. Our entire country will rise up and show its best side,” said Hollande in a statement.

Seventeen people, including journalists and police, were killed in three days of violence that began with a shooting attack on the weekly Charlie Hebdo known for its satirical attacks on Islam and other religions as well as politicians.

It ended on Friday with a hostage-taking at a Jewish deli in which four hostages and the gunman were killed. Overnight, an illuminated sign on the Arc de Triomphe read: “Paris est Charlie” ( “Paris is Charlie”).

Several London landmarks including Tower Bridge were due to be lit up in the red white and blue colours of the French national flag in a show of support for the event in Paris. Fifty-seven people were killed in an militant attack on London’s transport system in 2005.

Hours before the march, a video emerged featuring a man resembling the gunman killed in the kosher deli. He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State insurgent group and urged French Muslims to follow his example.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi were among 44 foreign leaders marching with Hollande.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu – who earlier encouraged French Jews to emigrate to Israel – and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were also present.

Immediately to Hollande’s left, walked Merkel and to his right Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. France has provided troops to help fight Islamist rebels there.

In a rare public display of emotion by two major-power leaders, cameras showed Hollande embracing Merkel, her eyes shut and forehead resting on his cheek, on the steps of the Elysee before they headed off to march.

After world leaders left the march, Hollande stayed to greet survivors of the Charlie Hebdo attack and their families. While there has been widespread solidarity with the victims, there have been dissenting voices.

French social media have carried comments from those uneasy with the “Je suis Charlie” slogan interpreted as freedom of expression at all cost.

Others suggest there was hypocrisy in world leaders whose countries have repressive media laws attending the march.

The official estimate on attendance is due to be announced later. A 1995 protest against planned welfare cuts brought some 500,000-800,000 people onto the streets of the capital, while a 2002 rally against the far-right National Front’s then leader Jean-Marie Le Pen afer he got into the run-off of that year’s presidential election drew 400,000-600,000.

Twelve people were killed in Wednesday’s initial attack on Charlie Hebdo, a journal know for satirising religions and politicians. The attackers, two French-born brothers of Algerian origin, singled out the weekly for its publication of cartoons depicting and ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

All three gunmen were killed in what local commentators have called “France’s 9/11”, a reference to the September 2001 attacks on U.S. targets by al Qaeda.

The head of France’s 550,000-strong Jewish community, Roger Cukierman, the largest in Europe, said Hollande had promised that Jewish schools and synagogues would have extra protection, by the army if necessary, after the killings.

France’s Agence Juive, which tracks Jewish emigration, estimates more than 5,000 Jews left France for Israel in 2014, up from 3,300 in 2013, itself a 73 per cent increase on 2012.
Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, whom analysts see receiving a boost in the polls due to the attacks, said her anti-immigrant party had been excluded from the Paris demonstration and would instead take part in regional marches.

In Germany, a rally against racism and xenophobia on Saturday drew tens of thousands of people in the eastern German city of Dresden, which has become the centre of anti-immigration protests organised by a new grassroots movement called PEGIDA.

A building of the newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost, which like many other publications has reprinted Charlie Hebdo cartoons, was the target of an arson attack and two suspects were arrested, police said on Sunday.

Turkish and French sources said a woman hunted by French police as a suspect in the attacks had left France several days before the killings and is believed to be in Syria.

French police had launched in an intensive search for Hayat Boumeddiene, the 26-year-old partner of one of the attackers, describing her as “armed and dangerous”.

January 5, 2015

Pak blast: 5 killed during football match in tribal region

Volleyball players killed (Credit: naharnet.com)

PESHAWAR, Jan 4: At least five people, including some football players were killed and 11 injured on Sunday in a bomb attack in Pakistan’s restive north western tribal region during a match, officials said.

A bomb exploded at a playground in Kadda Bazaar area of Kalya, the main town of Orakzai district today, killing five and injuring 11 people, Khiasta Akbar Khan, a local official said.

“Five people were killed and 11 injured in the bomb explosion,” he said.

The officials said that the attack took place when the spectators were watching a volleyball match but Radio Pakistan reported that a football match was in progress during the attack.

No militant outfit has taken the responsibility of the attack so far.

Nazim Ali, Waseem and Sarfraz Ali are some of the players among the dead, officials said.

Initial reports have shown that a planted device was used in the explosion.

The security forces have cordoned off the Shia-dominated area and started search operations.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the blast and deplored the loss of lives.

He emphasized on the government’s resolve to eradicate the menace of terrorism and extremism.

The bombing comes as the first major terror attack on Pakistani soil in the new year.

The country witnessed one of the deadliest attacks last month, when Taliban killed at least 149 people, mostly children at an army-run school in Peshawar.

January 5, 2015

Hate material seized in Balochistan crackdown

Balochistan crackdown (Credit: dawn.com)

QUETTA, Jan 3: Police and Frontier Corps (FC) on Saturday launched a crackdown against shopkeepers selling hate material in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta, Razzaq Cheema stated that 40 suspects were apprehended and twenty shops were sealed during different raids in Quetta.

Police also recovered 715 detonators, walkie-talkie sets and other materials from the sealed shops.

Since the Peshawar school attack, security forces have been conducting raids in different parts of Balochistan and arresting suspected militants.

FC also conducted raids in Chaman, Killa Abdullah, Khuzdar, Turbat and other districts of Balochistan and recovered hate materials including books, pamphlets, CDs and literature.
Spokesman FC in a statement stated that the crackdown was launched after approval by the federal government.

CCPO Quetta Razzaq Cheema stated that raids were conducted in Kuchlak, Satellite Town, Pashtoonbabad and other areas and more than forty shopkeepers were arrested.
“We will not allow anyone to spread hatred,” Cheema said. Markets in Quetta have been awash with CDs and hate literature for more than a decade.

This is the first time that police and FC have launched a joint crackdown against shopkeepers.

“We are interrogating the arrested shopkeepers,” Razzaq Cheema said.

When asked about threats in Quetta, the CCPO stated that information about threats were available but police were determined to ensure peace in the province.

January 2, 2015

Parliament Gives Constitutional Cover to Special Courts

Parliament meets on special courts (Credit: expresstribune.pk.com)

ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: The All Parties Conference (APC) at the PM House on Friday reached consensus on providing constitutional cover to special courts through an act of Parliament, while a roadmap regarding the 20-point National Action Plan was presented.

Speaking to the media after the meeting on Friday evening, PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that members of the APC agreed on the proposition that amendments be made to the Army Act to enable “speedy” trials against “hardened criminals”.

He added that the meeting was prolonged because of the discussion on whether what they were doing was enough.

“Legal experts were of the opinion that challenges are expected to any possible amendment to the Army Act or the Constitution in superior courts,” Qureshi said. “Legal experts believe that if amendments are made with constitutional cover it will be easier to defend them [in superior courts].”

Earlier, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said legislation regarding the the National Action Plan, which would possibly amend the Constitution to establish military courts, should be tabled in the National Assembly today.

“The time has come for a final decision to be made today. I am hopeful that this bill should be presented before Parliament today. There is no room for further debate on NAP,” Nawaz said, urging political leaders to finalise the draft for the amendment in the Constitution.

“The nation wants to see the National Action Plan in action,” the prime minister said while addressing an All Parties Conference at the PM House in Islamabad.

Further, the premier reiterated that the military courts would only be set up for two years.

Nawaz lauded the efforts made by the leadership of all political parties for being on the same page following the aftermath of the tragic attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in which 150 people were killed.

“I am happy to announce that the day after the incident, on December 17, all political parties’ leaders were in Peshawar and on the same page,” he said.

“In that APC, we unanimously decided that a parliamentary committee will be made to take action after the horrific incident,” said the premier.

Further, the prime minister said another meeting was held on December 24, which lasted 11 hours, in which the 20-point National Action Plan was also agreed upon collectively.

“I am happy that the political leadership of Pakistan is standing together to work towards eliminating terrorism,” he said.

December 25, 2014

KP Govt had been Warned of Peshawar Attack

Official warning to KPK govt (Credit: hindu.com)

Peshawar, Dec 22: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government departments had been warned of an imminent attack on the Army Public School months before the carnage unfolded in Peshawar.

A copy of the written warning issued on August 28 has been obtained by Geo News.

Alert No. 802 issued by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Ministry stated that the Taliban Orakzai Commander, Khaksar along with terrorists Bilal and Obaidullah had planned to carry out attacks at educational institutions under the army.

According to information, Bilal and Obaidullah with their accomplices had also conducted reconnaissance of the targets. The warning stated the intention of terrorists was revenge and they wanted to kill as many children of army officers as possible.

The written warning had called for security measures to be made in advance to avoid any untoward incident and copies were sent to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister, Home Minister and law enforcement agencies.

On December 16, terrorists carried out one of the most horrific attacks in the history of Pakistan. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists brutally killed over 140 people mostly children at the Army Public School.

Following the attack government and political parties expressed a renewed resolve to fight terrorism in the country. The prime minister also lifted the moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases.

December 22, 2014

We have killed all the children… What do we do now?

Peshawar massacre (Credit: mirror.co.uk)

PESHAWAR, Dec 18: `We have killed all the children in the auditorium,` one of the attackers told his handler.

‘What do we do now?` he asked. `Wait for the army people, kill them before blowing yourself,` his handler ordered.

This, according to a security official, was one of the last conversations the attackers and their handler had shortly before two remaining suicide bombers charged towards the special operations soldiers positioned just outside the side entrance of the Army Public School`s administration block here on Tuesday.

This and other conversations between the attackers and their handlers during the entire siege of seven and a half hours of the school on Warsal< Road form part of an intelligence dossier Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif shared with Afghan authorities on Wednesday.

`Vital elements of intelligence were shared with the authorities concerned with regard to the Peshawar incident,` an Inter-Services Public Relations statement on Gen Sharif`s visit to Afghanistan said.

Pakistan has the names of the attackers and the transcripts of the conversation between one of them, identified as Abuzar, and his handler,`commander`Umar.

Umar Adizai, also known as Umar Naray and Umar Khalifa, is a senior militant from the Frontier Region Peshawar.

Security officials believe he made the calls from Nazian district of Afghanistan`s Nangrahar province and now want the Afghan authorities to take action.

The officials believe that a group of seven militants attacked the school. Five of them blew themselves up inside the administration block and two others outside it.

The attackers entered the building by climbing its rear wall, using a ladder and cutting barbed wire. They all headed for the main auditorium where an instructor was giving a first-aid lesson to students of the school`s senior section.

`Did the attackers have prior 1(nowledge of the congregation in the main hall? We don`t know this yet. This is one of the questions we are trying to find an answer to,` a security official said.

A watchman standing at the rear of the auditorium appears to be the first victim because of a pool of congealed blood splashed in one corner of several steps in the open courtyard.

Finding the rear door closed, the militants charged towards the two main entry and exit doors and this is where the main carnage appears to have taken place, according to a military officer who took part in the counter-assault. Pools of blood at the entrance on both sides bore testimony to the horrific, indiscriminate shooting.

`There were piles of bodies, most dead, some alive. Blood everywhere. I wish I had not seen this,` the officer said.

The students in the hall appear to have rushed to leave the place af ter hearing the first round of shooting, and this was where they barged into the waiting militants who were blocking the two doors.

Inside the main hall, there was blood everywhere, almost on every inch of it.

Shoes of students and women teachers lay asunder. Those who had hid behind rows of seats were shot one by one, in the head.

More than 100 bodies and injured were evacuated from the entrances and the hall.

Every row of seats was bloodied. On one seat, there were blood-stained English notebooks of two eighth-grade students, Muhammad Asim and Muhammad Zahid.

A corner to the right of the stage in the auditorium, where an instructor was giving the lesson, was where a woman teacher, who had beseeched the militants to have mercy and let the children go, was shot and later burnt.

By that time, the Special Services Group (SSG) men had arrived and fighting had ensued and the militants were forced tomake a run for the administration block, just a few metres away.

Security officials believe the death toll could have been far higher had the militants reached the junior section before the arrival of the SSG personnel.

It is from inside the administration block that the militants fired at the SSG men.

Four of the militants blew themselves up inside the lobby of the block when they were cornered.

The impact was huge and devastating.

There were pockmarks from the flying ball bearings and human flesh and hair were plastered to the ceiling and the walls.

One of the bombers blew himself up in the office of the Headmistress, Tahira Qazi. Her office stands gutted. Her body was recognised later. A leg of the bomber was lying around.

Two students and three staff members were killed in the administration block along with the headmistress.

The last two bombers charged towards the SSG men who had taken positions on either side of the flank entrance to the block.

One of them exploded himself and after a while, the second one did. Shrapnel and ball bearings hit the rear wall, some pierced through the trees opposite the entrance.

This is where the seven SSG men were injured. One of the personnel who had taken position behind one of the trees was hit in the face, but is reported to be in stable condition.

The assault came to an end but left several questions.

Could the tragedy have been avoided? Yes, given prior specific intelligence tips of August and repeated conveyance of concerns by some teachers regarding the school`s vulnerability vis-a-vis its western and northern boundary walls.

Could the casualties have been avoided or minimised? Probably not, given the short response time. By the time the SSG men arrived and began the operation within 10 to 15 minutes of the assault, the militants had carried out much of the carnage.

There was no clarity on the number of militants and their location. The SSG team arrived through the front gate covered by two armoured personnel carriers. As they moved from block to block, the first major priority was to secure the junior section.

December 20, 2014

Former Karachi Laborer Masterminded Peshawar Children’s Massacre

TTP's Umar Mansoor (Credit: wsj.com) — TTP’s Umar Mansoor (Credit: wsj.com)

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The most hated man in the country is a 36-year-old father of three and volleyball enthusiast nicknamed “Slim”. His real name is Umar Mansoor and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan say he masterminded this week’s massacre of 132 children and nine staff at a school in Peshawar – the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan’s history.

A video posted on Thursday on a website used by the Taliban shows a man with a luxuriant chest-length beard, holding an admonishing finger aloft as he seeks to justify the December 16 attack.

The caption identified him as Umar Mansoor.

“If our women and children die as martyrs, your children will not escape,” he said. “We will fight against you in such a style that you attack us and we will take revenge on innocents.”

The Taliban say the attack, in which gunmen wearing suicide-bomb vests executed children, was retaliation for a military offensive carried out by the army.

The school attack shocked a nation where traditionally, women and children are protected, even in war.

Six TTP members interviewed by Reuters confirmed the mastermind was Mansoor. Four of them said he is close to Mullah Fazlullah, the embattled leader of the fractious group who ordered assassins to kill Malala Yousafzai.

“He strictly follows the principles of jihad,” one said. “He is strict in principles, but very kind to his juniors. He is popular among the juniors because of his bravery and boldness.”

Mansoor got a high school education in the capital, Islamabad, two Taliban members said, and later studied in a madrassah. “Umar Mansoor had a tough mind from a very young age, he was always in fights with other boys,” said one Taliban member.

Mansoor has two brothers and spent some time working in the city of Karachi as a labourer before joining the Taliban soon after it was formed, in late 2007, said one commander.

His nickname is “nary,” a word in the Pashto language meaning “slim”, and he is the father of two daughters and a son, said another commanders.

“(Mansoor) likes to play volleyball,” said one of the Taliban members. “He is a good volleyball player. Wherever he shifts his office, he puts a volleyball net up.”

The Taliban video describes him as the “amir”, or leader, of Peshawar and nearby Darra Adam Khel.

Mansoor deeply opposes talks with the government, the commanders said.

“He was very strict from the start when he joined,” a commander said. “He left many commanders behind if they had a soft corner (of their heart) for the government.”