17dec

Wednesday 18-25 December , 2014
SPECIAL FEATURE
18
(Agencies) 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 coldblooded
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.
In an email released this morning,
Khurasani attempted to justify the attack
by claiming that the Pakistani army has
long killed the innocent children and families
of Taliban fighters.
But he vowed more such militant attacks
and told Pakistani civilians to detach
themselves from all military institution,
adding: 'We are still able to carry
out major attacks. This was just the
trailer.' In the email, the terror group
warned Muslims to avoid places with military
ties, saying it attacked the school to
avenge the deaths of children allegedly
killed by soldiers in tribal areas.
It accused the students at the army
school of 'following the path of their fathers
and brothers to take part in the fight
against the tribesmen' nationwide.
The warning 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.’
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.
Fazlullah is understood to have demanded
that his lieutenant Umar Naray
managed the operation, and communicated
with the gunmen directly from his
base over the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s army chief of staff, Raheel
Sharif, flew to Kabul to seek help in tracking
him down.
'His communications have been intercepted
as well which helped security
agencies in tracing his location and
whereabouts which was urgently shared
not only with the Afghan army but also
with Nato forces,' a security source was
quoted as telling Peshawar's Dawn newspaper.
The firebrand militant, whose thick
black beard reaches halfway down his
chest, took control of the Pakistani
Taliban 13 months ago. It is thought the
massacre may have been his barbaric
revenge for Malala, 17, being award the
Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.
Whatever his twisted motive, Fazlullah
has succeeded in uniting the world in revulsion
once again. 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.’
As the photographs of the murders
were released by the Pakistani Taliban,
all six men were named on Twitter. But
their personal details have not yet been
independently verified.
The government in Islamabad immediately
responded by instructing schools
across the country to increase their security
and to rehearse escape routines.
It came 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