CHILLING POSE OF TALIBAN DEATH SQUAD
Fury as terrorists taunt victims with tasteless photograph Death toll in school tragedy rises to 148
POSING proudly in front of a Taliban banner declaring ‘There is no God but Allah’, this is the hand-picked suicide cell responsible for the cold-blooded slaughter of 132 schoolchildren.
Clutching an array of rocket launchers and machine guns, the crazed gunmen are shown both in traditional clothing of Taliban fighters and the Pakistan military uniforms they wore to avoid suspicion immediately before storming the Army School in Peshawar.
The pictures – apparently taken in the hours before Tuesday’s attack – were released yesterday by the Taliban, together with a threat to carry out similar attacks despite the outrage at the horrific, carefully planned massacre in which 132 children and more than a dozen teachers were killed. It came as the Prince of Wales joined the international condemnation of the attack, describing it as ‘sickening’ and a ‘ horrific reminder that Muslims themselves are the victims of the violent intolerance of the extremists’.
Speaking at the Syrian Orthodox Church in London, Prince Charles added: ‘The many, many families in Pakistan who have lost children, other relatives, friends and colleagues in the massacre are in my prayers.’
His words of sympathy followed the chilling warning of fresh attacks by Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khurasani, who told Muslims to avoid places with military ties, accusing students at the army school of ‘following the path of their fathers and brothers to take part in the fight against the tribesmen’.
The government i n Islamabad immediately responded by instruct- ing schools across the country to increase their security and to rehearse escape routines.
The Taliban photographs were released as mass funerals took place across Peshawar on the first of three days of national mourning and as Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, ordered a moratorium on the death penalty to be lifted for terrorrelated cases. Amid harrowing scenes, dozens of small wooden coffins were carried for burial together with those of their teachers. Rows of children and fellow pupils stood in silence, some weeping, their hands clasped in front of them beside the lines of caskets draped in blankets.
People across the country lit candles and held vigils for the 148 who were killed – seven more of the critically injured died in hospital yesterday. ‘They finished in minutes what I had lived my whole life for – my son,’ said labourer Akhtar Hussain, tears streaming down his face as he buried 14-year- old Fahad. He said he had worked for years in Dubai to earn a livelihood for his children, adding: ‘That innocent one is now gone in the grave, and I can’t wait to join him, I can’t live any more.’
Among the best attended of the funerals was that of teacher Afsha Ahmed, 24, who confronted the gunmen when they burst into her classroom and told them: ‘ You can only kill my students over my dead body.’
She was burned alive as she stood in front of her pupils.
Prime Minister Sharif said Pakistan stood united to ensure the deaths of the children were not wasted, after a meeting of all party leaders in Peshawar. He promised that in military action, there would be no distinction between ‘good and bad’ Taliban.
‘We have resolved to continue the war against terrorism till the last terrorist is eliminated,’ Mr Sharif said. ‘We must not forget these scenes. The way they left bullet holes in the bodies of innocent kids, the way they tore apart their faces with bullets.’
He said he spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to discuss how both countries could do more to fight terrorism. Significantly, the two agreed to launch operations on their respective sides of the border, and pledged to ‘clean this region from terrorism’.
The Peshawar atrocity is said to have been ordered by Maulana Fazlullah, head of the Taliban in Pakistan and the man who ordered the shooting of teenage education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The firebrand is believed to be operating from Afghanistan. Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Raheel Sharif, flew to Kabul to seek help in tracking him down.
In a society usually reluctant to criticise the Taliban, there was an outpouring of anger across Pakistan yesterday. At a vigil in the capital Islamabad, Fatimah Khan, 38, said: ‘I don’t have words for my pain and anger. They slaughtered those children like animals.’
Naba Mehdi, 16, had a message of defiance for the Taliban.
‘We’re not scared of you,’ she said. ‘We will still study and fight for our freedom. This is our war.’
The BBC faced criticism yesterday for not using the word ‘terrorist’ to describe the Taliban fanatics behind the school massacre in Pakistan.
The broadcaster’s TV, radio and online reports called the extremists who carried out the bloody attack ‘militants’ or ‘gunmen’.
Tory MP Conor Burns said the Peshawar gunmen were ‘clearly terrorists’ and called on the BBC to stop toning down its language.