Taliban take 500 children hostage in Army school in Peshawar
Source: REUTERS
(Reuters) - Taliban gunmen in Pakistan took hundreds of students and teachers hostage on Tuesday in a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, military officials at the scene said.
A Reuters journalist at the scene could hear heavy gunfire from inside the school as soldiers surrounded it. Ambulances were transporting wounded children to hospital.
"We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers," said Jamshed Khan, a school bus driver.
Military officials said at least six armed men had entered the military-run Army Public School. About 500 students and teachers were believed to be inside.
"Our suicide bombers have entered the school, they have instructions not to harm the children, but to target the army personnel," Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani told Reuters.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/16/us-pakistan-school-idUSKBN0JU0JO20141216
Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha
As the gunbattle remains on between the security forces and the terrorists, reports say that the number of injured children may shoot up.
The responsibility for the attack has been claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. According to an AFP report, the terrorists have been ordered to shoot older students at the Army-run school.
Some 35 children are said to be injured and they a
re being rushed to the nearby hospitals.
Pakistani security forces have cordoned off the school and gunfire can be heard.
An Army school in Peshawar's cantonment area has been attacked by six terrorists on Tuesday morning. According to a Reuters report, the terrorists are holding some 500 students and children hostage.
http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/pakistan-live-taliban-take-500-children-hostage-in-army-school-in-peshawar_1515548.html
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marym625
(17,997 posts)Why target children? This world is so messed up. Those poor kids.
Our world is suffering a sickness not seen since the dark ages
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)I suspect.
We have evil sinister manipulators that would like nothing more than a new and improved war, a WWIII.
7962
(11,841 posts)Where have you been? They dont even hide it anymore. Europe is their next stated goal. They're proud of it
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Those terrorists! I better build a bomb shelter. 
Piasladic
(1,160 posts)There are over 130 people dead, many children, and you laugh?
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)unless its you.
840high
(17,196 posts)that so many are dead?
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)than the barbaric times of 1000 ACE-1500 ACE? This is how they spread the religion back then - with brutality and coercion. Even today, the most brutal and cruel of the men are glorified and looked up to in countries like Pakistan.
For example, Pakistan's missiles are named after people who massacred or forcibly converted 80 million Hindus (Ghauri, Gaznavi etc.)
Look up Mohammad Ghauri, Mahmoud Gaznavi on the web and see the reign of terror they imposed on non-Muslims.
Ayaz Amir, a Pakistani columnist lamented this by saying, "Why can't we revere Rumi, Omar Khayyam or Al Jibran instead of these brutal characters?"
7962
(11,841 posts)And I guess they're pissed at the rest of the world for leaving them behind
MisterP
(23,730 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)My statement was about how prevalent torture, kidnapping, etc are currently.
Yes, if you want a specific thing that is currently happening in the name of religion. Boko Haram is using the kidnapped school girls as suicide bombers. They're sending them into buildings and crowded areas with bombs strapped on them, then the detonate.
Some of the torture techniques we used are similar to some used in the dark ages.
I am not trying to be nasty or obtuse. I just don't know what you are looking for.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)that's coming back? torture only became increasingly refined with the definition of the non-dynastic state in the 15th c.
violent reformist movements condemned by the old clergy have always been with us
Got it.
Yes, there has always been, and always will be with us. Just seems to me we're seeing more of it, more often.
I saw this post right after reading about those kidnapped girls being made into suicide bombers. I can't imagine what has been done to these girls since they were kidnapped. Knowing what their fate now seems to be, has to be yet a new hell.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Evil is real, it exists, and the Taliban are proof that it exists in a pure form.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)and evil exists when good people use excuses and look away or claim they are just isolated incidents .
How many innocents have to die before the excuses and "understanding" end ?
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)but when you figure it out, tell Europe...they are DIEING to know.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)This is exactly how they like it.
Open borders, endless war and a powerless, dwindling, scared middle class that doesn't notice that it's being degraded by our own political leaders.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)mostly children. 84 Malala's who just wanted an education. Heartbreaking.
7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)When, just when will enough ever be just enough?
Heartsick.
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)At least 100 people, mostly children, have been killed in a Taliban assault on an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, officials say.
Five or six militants wearing security uniforms entered the school, officials said. Gunfire and explosions were heard as security forces surrounded the area.
The army says most of the school's 500 students have been evacuated. It is not clear how many are being held hostage.
A Taliban spokesman says the assault is in response to army operations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30491435
oberliner
(58,724 posts)The death toll has now risen to 126 killed, and 122 have been injured in the Peshawar attack, officials say. Some 84 are believed to be children.
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-asia-30491113?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)but as was pointed out to me yesterday ....
these crimes are "committed by fringe individuals or groups of fringe individuals".
No reason to think anything else.
quadrature
(2,049 posts)
bemildred
(90,061 posts)To the death, like crazed rats in a cage.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Five or six militants are said to have entered the building. Five are reported to have been killed, at least one of them in a suicide blast.
The army says most of the 500 students have been evacuated. It is not clear if any are still inside.
The attack is being seen as one of the worst-ever in Pakistan.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435
Is this the tipping point? Will Pakistan finally say enough is enough?
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)The Pakistan military strikes back.
Then the Taliban seeks revenge.
Then the military retaliates...
Etc.
IMO we need to cut the funding and supplies of these groups as military tactics don't work.
7962
(11,841 posts)THIS incident may turn much of the taliban's public support against them because of the brutality of the act. Maybe this will be viewed as "they've gone too far".
One things for sure, most of these kids were children of the military. You can bet whatever restraint they had will be gone now.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)The military spawned Taliban and most of the members of Taliban are active duty Pakistani military.
We defund Pakistan and these shenanigans stop.
BA123
(9 posts)Hi, Pakistani here
I do not believe you are correct in thinking that the members of Taliban are active duty Pakistani officers. The history of the military and the Taliban may have similar roots, but as with all terrorist parties, they tore away from being members of our military and our country the moment they put their own interests above all else.
The Pakistani military have led a relatively successful operation against the Taliban in recent months. this was their retaliation. The bombers involved were dressed up as members of the army but were identified as NOT being actual officers. if the Taliban were members of the army, and/or vice versa, why are they killing their own kids? Because the army has bombed the Taliban and their children, and now they are taking revenge. if your theory is correct, what exactly is the point of these "shenanigans", as you so lightly termed it?
However i do believe you have a point in that de-funding Pakistan may slow down (not stop) the issues. Much of the aid sent is in fact pocketed by the corrupt members of some political party (and not all of them Pakistani political parties), and in turn finds its way to the Taliban.
However, even the trickle of funding that DOES find its way to the people in need, has saved many lives. I am not sure that people truly grasp how desperate the people of Pakistan have become. the people who are not heard. you take away funding, the Taliban will probably find another way. There are many factions who would continue to provide funding for them.
It is easy to point fingers and suggest solutions. but the problem is not so easily solved. nor can you say certainly that there, there is the party responsible.
Please, do not so easily suggest that a man may willingly kill his own child, or that many men will allow their children to be shot....for their "shenanigans".
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)However, it is undeniable that Taliban was started by Zia ul Haq and later supported massively by Musharraf in order to control Afghanistan. It is known in Indian intelligence circles that Mullah Omar was a sobriquet and a role for a Pakistani Brigadier General on deputation in Afghanistan and after the war, he just went back to his original post in the ISI. This is why he never allowed his picture taken nor is anything known about him pre and post Taliban.
Musharraf hoodwinked GW Bush in the Kunduz (Qu'unduz) airlift and evacuated some 10,000+ Pakistani soldiers out of Afghanistan. It is also known that Pakistan wanted to control Afghanistan for its "strategic depth" and didn't want the pro-India government of Ahmad Shah Masood running Afghanistan. There is no way a rag tag bunch of Pashtun fighters could have defeated Ahmad Shah Masood without massive training, weaponry and actual participation of trained soldiers.
What is sad is that Pakistan has become very good at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The current hope of average middle-class Pakistanis of a stable, democratic government of Nawaz Sharif is being dashed by the army/ISIs engineering of support for Imran Khan, an otherwise sensible politician who is embracing the extremists and the military support just for his ego and ambition to be prime minister. Everyone knows how that ends.
I think that Pakistan's obsession with Kashmir makes it always choose the wrong decision and has created a bloated military that is entirely unnecessary. Pakistan should get over Kashmir and be happy that Kashmiris are living in a true democracy with an economy 180 times that of Pakistan.
Welcome to DU by the way. I always enjoy discussions with intelligent and rational people from Pakistan.
BA123
(9 posts)The obsession with Kashmir is something that must be let go of. in fact, the Kashmir issue has mostly becoming some egotistical thing now, not really something that the actual people care about.
Pakistan is by no means innocent in its history with the Taliban, as you have said. Many of the decisions taken by Musharraf at the time were condemned by us. And yes, even in our history books, Zia ul Haq is not painted as much of a 'good guy'.
I simply wished to establish that the Taliban and military are not the same, as proven by their hostility towards each other..but you are right that this may only be what it is now when the dictators are out of the picture...it is a depressing thought.
I would like to point out that, as a middle-class citizen, Nawaz Sharif's government is anything but democratic. i myself was witness to the very huge amount of corruption and vote-rigging involved during his rise to power. it also doesn't boost the confidence of people here, when the man has been accused, and proven, to be a murderer, and yet has nothing to show for it.
I personally do not support Imran Khan or Nawaz Sharif, but in Pakistan when it comes to politicians, there is no good or bad, only trying to choose the lesser of two evils. regardless of where either of the two lead us, it seems that the actual citizens of Pakistan are either unheard, or just brainwashed by patriotic words, due to their illiteracy.
these are just the opinions of a 20yr old though. i know there is much that i, even as a citizen, am unaware of. but you have given me a lot to think about. so thank you.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)You are far ahead of your age in wisdom, intelligence and information.
I agree that the Pakistani Taliban and the army are no longer the same. The Afghan Taliban is another matter entirely.
As to lesser of two evils, such is the story of democracy! Nawaz Sharif may be corrupt and a murderer, but being a businessman, he realized the value of making peace with India and improve trade for the benefit of both sides and creating an atmosphere for business investments from around the world. Improving trade and economy will be the key to improving the lives of ordinary people and create opportunities for people like you! Zardari or Imran won't be any less corrupt anyway.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)
BA123
(9 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)I simply provided the latest news (at the time) from BBC. I wasn't advocating a position wrt the Pakistani military. When I said "Pakistan" I meant the people of that nation, not the military elites.
BA123
(9 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)You'll see the person to whom you replied in the right upper corner of your post...!
hmm..it does say, response to cosmicone reply # 20...i'm not quite sure where i went wrong now. but never mind. thank you for clarifying.
MADem
(135,425 posts)If you click on the link at the upper right, it will take you to the post to which you are replying!
It is tricky, you'll get the hang of it...!
drm604
(16,230 posts)How can anyone bring themselves to do things like this?
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)
drm604
(16,230 posts)cosmicone
(11,014 posts)
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Unless you want to see the extremely radical groups getting a hold of nuclear weapons. Not so much worried for us here as I am for neighboring countries (India) that they have been feuding with for a long time.
I'm not sure what the answer is to the problems Pakistan is having, but I think withholding funds would be a mistake.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Bradical79
(4,490 posts)We give Pakistan a lot of money, but Pakistan military and intelligence elements are involved with the Taliban. Any estimates of how much U.S. aid finds its way to the taliban?
JCMach1
(27,556 posts)in Waziristan...
The Pakistani military is NOT going to be amused by this at all.
peace13
(11,076 posts)We have tortured and killed so many people of all ages and set an awful example across the globe. More war is not the answer. Hold war criminals responsible for their actions. Start there!
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)and all feeds into each other IMO.
(I happen to think that both sides are bankrolled by the same people as well).
This wil only stop when we the people rise up and say we don't want to be part of their warmongering anymore.
This happened in 2006 and 2008 but they fooled us somehow.
peace13
(11,076 posts)When peace is profitable we will see it, unless of course the people stand up!
Bragi
(7,650 posts)I think it's time to acknowledge that the West can't solve the problems of the Middle East, and it's time to just put a wall around the whole region and let the people there sort it all out as they wish.
Hopefully, the people there would eventually decide to rise up and topple the drug barons, war lords and religious medievalists who run those countries.
If they do, we can talk about restoring relations. If not, have a nice day. Just don't try to jump the wall. And yes, you can keep your oil, or sell it to China and Russia, whatever you wish.
I'd invite anyone who wants to pass through the wall to go to any of those countries to feel free to do so, as long as they understand that they won't be getting out until we decide we want relations again with that walled-off region.
Until then, no-one gets out, trade is halted, and we wish everyone well in their deliberations.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Actually, it probably dovetails nicely with the thinking of ISIS. I'm sure they'd like to see the West walk away, too. Then they could work on expanding that caliphate from Gibraltar to Bali.
Bragi
(7,650 posts)ISIS needs the west fighting wars in Muslim countries. That's a big part of its appeal.
If we just withdrew from those wars, I think people in those countries would then have to deal themselves with the problem posed by ISIS, and by the isolation and disruption they have caused.
I don't see how else we can get people there to take responsibility for their own futures.
If people there think ISIS is fine, then so be it. We can use our military to keep them behind the wall, and to make sure no-one and nothing gets out.
If any Muslims in the west want to join ISIS, then I'd be happy to give them free passage, just drop off your passports on the way in. Happy Caliphate to you.
If they oppose ISIS, then it is up to them to act. Not us.
If we in the West have shown the world anything in the past two decades, it is that we can't run their countries.
MADem
(135,425 posts)You're getting into former Jewel in the Crown territory when you talk about Pakistan, after all.
onenote
(42,694 posts)Exactly how does one put a "wall" around the entire Middle East. If you wall off Pakistan, do you wall off India too? What are the boundaries of this wall? Who is in and who is out?
Bragi
(7,650 posts)I think we need to wall off any and all countries where Islamic forces pose a danger to us. For me, that would include most of the ME, plus Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other Islamic states in the region.
What kind of wall? It doesn't have to be a physical wall, just a known barrier where anyone is free to pass over it if they want to join the Caliphate, but where no-one gets out.
I do believe we have the know-how to create such a barrier.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)<snip>
The Taliban attacked a military-run school on Tuesday, because they wanted revenge for the Pakistani military targeting their own families, a spokesman for the militant group said, according to Reuters. Muhammad Umar Khorasani is quoted as saying:
We selected the army’s school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females. We want them to feel the pain.
Peshawar is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the north-west province in Pakistan that borders Afghanistan. The Pakistani has been carrying out an offensive against the Taliban in the region.
peace13
(11,076 posts)both sides understand the pain and feel the pain of war yet continue to fuel the fight that will continue...resulting in more pain. I will never understand how there is satisfaction in killing any child. Hopeless.....
pettypace
(744 posts)The scoundrels who perpetrated this heinous crime were motivated to punish the children of their opponents.
I do not believe we can implicate Islam as a contributing factor.
Islam had a dozen and one incongruities and faults, there can be no doubt.
But I can say without equivocation that today's slaughter was the age-old example of men's retaliatory nature.
At times like this I wish I was a religious man, but regardless I send thoughts and prayers to the parents.
Bragi
(7,650 posts)How can you say "I do not believe we can implicate Islam as a contributing factor" when the Taliban -- who mounted this alleged retaliatory attack -- is itself a fundamentalist Islamic movement, inspired by a particular interpretation of the Quran?
pettypace
(744 posts)THIS attack was to punish the Pakistani army for its insurrection against Taliban strongholds.
Their victims were fellow Muslims in their own backyard.
My post was simply to evade bashing Islam like our friends at freerepublic are wont to do.
Response to Bragi (Reply #50)
BA123 This message was self-deleted by its author.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)They have nuclear weapons.
There is a good film about the strife that lead to the founding or Pakistan.
Earth.
http://breathedreamgo.com/2012/09/top-10-movies-about-india/
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)with an ostentatious reason of safeguarding religious minorities. They did this out of spite because they were squarely defeated by the freedom fighters.
They played to the large ego of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, a Mumbai based cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, womanizing barrister who wanted to be prime minister. Then they kept the proposed boundaries secret until the last minute and displaced millions of people.
Several million people lost their lives and countless hundreds of thousands lost everything they owned. Furthermore, thy made the Hindu-Muslim tensions worse and created eternal enemies and a headache for the world.
I am sure some brits were laughing and smirking at the prank they played with millions of lives because their ego was bruised.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)