A group of militants have stormed a university in north-west Pakistan, police said, with firing inside the campus still going on and two explosions heard.
Local media had reported that up to 10 gunmen entered the Bacha Khan university in Charsadda, north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, using the cover of thick fog and opened fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels.
There was no immediate official report of casualties but news channel Geo TV reported that at least one person, a chemistry professor, had died. Other reports said 50 people had been wounded in the attack with multiple deaths in the university.
The Express Tribune said at least eight people had been injured and taken to hospital, while an emergency had been declared at all hospitals in the area.
Television footage showed soldiers entering the campus as ambulances lined up outside the main gate and anxious parents consoled each other.
On student, Abid Ali, was quoted in the Express Tribune describing the attack: “The gunmen entered from the back gate of the university where the guesthouse [is] and started opening doors and firing indiscriminately. Right now, the gunmen are holed up behind a wall of the boys’ hostel.”
Reuters reported that Pakistan police were claiming to have cornered some of the gunmen on the second and third floors of the university.
“We launched an operation inside the university and are trying to rescue the students and staff of the institution,” Deputy Inspector General Saeed Wazir told the news agency.
Wazir said the number of gunmen was unclear but police had moved into the university and a gunfight with the attackers was under way.
The university’s vice chancellor, Fazal Raheem Marwat, told Agence France-Presse the gunmen were still on the rampage and students were trapped on the campus.
“Gunmen have entered the university campus from the southern side,” he said, adding that the injured included a university guard and two civilians.
“There are male and female staff members and students on the campus,” he said, saying he had been on his way to work when he was informed of the attack.
“There was no announced threat but we had already beefed up security at the university.”
Army personnel had reportedly arrived at the scene and a police official said elite forces had also been deployed.
More than 3,000 people were reported to be on the campus, which lies about 100km north-west of Islamabad.
Pakistan had killed and arrested hundreds of suspected militants under a counter-terrorism plan enacted after a massacre of school children in December 2014 in its volatile north-west.
Shabir Khan, a lecturer in the English department, said he was about to leave the hostel for the department when firing began.
“Most of the students and staff were in classes when the firing began,” Khan said. “I have no idea about what’s going on but I heard one security official talking on the phone to someone and said many people had been killed and injured.”(Staff and agencies)
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/20/bacha-khan-university-explosions-heard-as-gunmen-attack-pakistan
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