2014 Peshawar school massacre

2014 Peshawar School Massacre
سانحہ آرمی پبلک اسکول
Army Public School Auditorium, Peshawar, Pakistan
Location of the attack: Army Public School is located in the centre
LocationPeshawar, Warsak Road, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Coordinates34°00′49″N 71°32′10″E / 34.01361°N 71.53611°E / 34.01361; 71.53611
Date16 December 2014; 9 years ago (2014-12-16)
10:30 PKT[1] – 19:56 PKT[2] (UTC+05:00)
TargetStudents and staff at Army Public School
Attack type
Suicide bombing Muder-suicide,[3] mass shooting, hostage-taking,[4] school shooting
Deaths155 (including the six perpetrators)[5]
Injured114[6]
Perpetrators Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan[7]
Defenders Pakistan Army
MotiveRetaliation against

On 16 December 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The terrorists, all of whom were foreign nationals, comprising one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans,[8] entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children,[6][9] killing 149 people including 132 schoolchildren ranging between eight and eighteen years of age, making it the world's fifth deadliest school massacre.[10][11] Pakistan launched a rescue operation undertaken by the Pakistan Army's Special Services Group (SSG) special forces, who killed all six terrorists and rescued 960 people.[6][12][13] In the long term, Pakistan established the National Action Plan to crack down on terrorism.

According to various news agencies and commentators, the nature and preparation of the attack was very similar to that of the Beslan school hostage crisis that occurred in the North Ossetia–Alania region of the Russian Federation in 2004.[14][15][16][17][18]

Pakistan responded to the attacks by lifting its moratorium on the death penalty, committing more resources to the War in North-West Pakistan, and authorizing military courts to try civilians through a constitutional amendment. On 2 December 2015, Pakistan hanged four militants involved in the Peshawar massacre. Two other militants had committed suicide by bombing themselves in the massacre. [19] The mastermind of the attack, Omar Khorasani, was killed in Afghanistan on 7 August 2022 by a roadside mine.[20] The Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld the death sentences of two more convicts involved in the attack in the Said Zaman Khan v. Federation of Pakistan case on 29 August 2016.[21]

  1. ^ "A horrific attack at a Peshawar school shows where the heaviest burden of terrorism lies". QUARTZ India. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  2. ^ "As it happened: Pakistan school attack". BBC. 16 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Newsweek Pakistan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Gunmen hold 500 students hostage in Pakistani city of Peshawar". Business Insider. Reuters. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  5. ^ "Pakistan raises death toll in Peshawar school attack to 148". LA TIMES. 17 December 2014. Archived from the original on 3 December 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  6. ^ a b c "Pakistan Taliban backed by Indian agencies: Peshawar school attack leaves 141 dead". BBC. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  7. ^ Walsh, Declan (16 December 2014). "Pakistani Taliban Attack on Peshawar School Leaves 15 Dead". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  8. ^ "Three years after 140 died in the Peshawar school massacre, what has changed?". Independent, UK. 15 December 2017. Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Peshawar school attack: Over 10 killed in Pakistani Taliban attack, hundreds of students hostage". DNA India. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  10. ^ "Pakistan Taliban: Peshawar school attack leaves 141 dead". BBC. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  11. ^ "More than 100 children killed in Taliban attack on Pakistan school". The Guardian. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 21 November 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  12. ^ "Peshawar school attack: Pakistan authorities claim all Taliban attackers are dead". The Express Tribune. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  13. ^ Ali, Zulfiqar (16 December 2014). "Taliban kills at least 10 people in attack on Pakistan military school". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  14. ^ "Beslan in Pakistan". Pravda.Ru. 16 December 2014. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  15. ^ "After Beslan, Peshawar". Pakistan Today. Pakistan Today. 17 December 2014. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  16. ^ TNN (17 December 2014). "Beslan 2004: The other cowardly terror attack on kids". Times of India. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  17. ^ "Taliban attack in Pakistan a chilling reminder of Beslan school siege". Indian Express. 17 December 2014. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2014. Taliban attackers' brazen assault on a school in Pakistan's Peshawar city that claimed the lives of over 150 pupils today has brought back chilling memories of a similar bloodbath in Russia in 2004 when Chechen rebels stormed a school.
  18. ^ Spencer, Richard (17 December 2014). "The world's five worst terror attacks involving children". Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014. The only parallels in modern history to today's Taliban attack on a Pakistan school were those by Islamist militant separatists on a Beslan school in North Ossetia.
  19. ^ "Pakistan hangs four militants involved in Peshawar massacre | Only Kashmir – Behind the News". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  20. ^ "Top Pakistani Taliban leader killed in Afghanistan; Shiites targeted in Kabul". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  21. ^ Khan, Raza (29 August 2016). "Supreme Court rejects all 16 appeals of terror convicts set to hang". Dawn. Dawn Group. Reuters. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2016.