Yesterday the Telegraph reported some heart-breaking details of the slaughter at the army school in Peshawar. Be warned: they’re not happy reading.
The Taliban attackers reserved particularly horrific deaths for the adults, pouring fuel over at least three and setting them alight and killing the head, Tahira Qazi, with a hand grenade.
“Our principal showed extreme bravery,” Wasif Ali, a grade six pupil, said from his bed at the Lady Reading Hospital, where he was being treated for abdominal and head injuries. “She wasn’t afraid even when the militants were firing shots.” He said that as the firing started, she rushed from classroom to classroom, shouting at those inside to lock themselves in. Other pupils said she was trying to console them as well as protect them.
She was joined by another teacher, Saeed Khan, who tried to prevent pupils running away, fearing they would be exposing themselves to more danger, and told them to lie on the floor of the classrooms.
“All the 900 students would have been killed, had both those teachers not come out in the middle of it all,” said Jaffar Gul, a boy who sustained head injuries. “God bless both.”
This isn’t militancy or unrest or extremism. It’s sadistic slaughter for its own sake, by people who take pleasure in sadistic slaughter.
Mr Khan was one of a number of teachers who had fuel poured on them and set alight. At the hospital, he could only be identified by the rings he was wearing.
“Saeed Khan didn’t care for himself,” said Adnan Ahmed, a grade nine student. “Later, we were told in the hospital that Khan has been killed.,” Another pupil, Irfan Ullah, 15, told local reporters he would have probably been killed if his teacher, Afsha Ahmed, 24, hadn’t stood in front of the attackers as they entered their room and told them she would not allow them in.
“She was so brave,” Irfanullah said. “Her last words to the terrorists were: ‘You must kill me first because I will not see my students’ bodies lying in front of me.’ “The next thing we knew, she was on fire. Even while burning, she shouted at us to run away and find refuge.” Another teacher, Hifsa Khush, is also thought to have been burned alive in front of her pupils.
Shortly before the sadistic murderers did that, they posed for a picture in front of a flag with the shahada.
The Pakistan Taliban continued yesterday to claim credit for the attack, which they said was in retaliation for army assaults on their strongholds in the north-west of the country.
They published online pictures of the attackers taken before they launched their assault, at lunch-time on Tuesday. The pictures showed six men and their commander lined up first in military fatigues and then in civilian clothing, brandishing rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic rifles.
In the latter, they are kneeling in front of a flag bearing the Muslim expression of faith in black writing on a white background.
That’s their “god” – one that approves of setting teachers who protect their students on fire.
The school, part of a network of elite schools for the sons and daughters of soldiers as well as some civilians, was a natural target.
However, the Taliban have also destroyed schools across northern Pakistan as part of their campaign against modern education. More than 1,000, especially girls schools, have been attacked and in many cases burned.
The prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, signalled a hardening of attitudes, saying he would no longer distinguish between “good and bad Taliban”, referring to previous attempts to negotiate with some jihadist factions, including that responsible for Tuesday’s attack.
That was never a good idea.
Journalists should stop saying that terrorist groups “claim responsibility” or “claim credit” for their atrocities. These stories should be reported as the group’s “admission of culpability” or “admission of guilt” for their heinous acts.