2014 Peshawar school massacre
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On 16 December 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani bo ...
(TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants, all of whom were foreign nationals, comprising one Chechen, three Arabs and two
Afghans Afghans ( ps, افغانان, translit=afghanan; Persian/ prs, افغان ها, translit=afghānhā; Persian: افغانستانی, romanized: ''Afghanistani'') or Afghan people are nationals or citizens of Afghanistan, or people with ancestry f ...
, entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing 149 people including 132 schoolchildren ranging between eight and eighteen years of age, making it the world's fourth deadliest school massacre. In retaliation, Pakistan launched a rescue operation undertaken by the
Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...
's Special Services Group (SSG) special forces, who killed all six terrorists and rescued 960 people. In the longterm 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 The Republic of North Ossetia–Alania; os, Республикӕ Цӕгат Ирыстон — Алани, ''Respublikæ Cægat Iryston — Alani'', ) is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. Its population acco ...
region of the Russian Federation in 2004. Pakistan responded to the attacks by lifting its moratorium on the
death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, committing more resources to the War in North-West Pakistan, and authorizing military courts to try civilians through a
constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...
. On 2 December 2015, Pakistan hanged four militants involved in the Peshawar massacre. The mastermind of the attack, Omar Khorasani, was killed in Afghanistan on 7 August 2022 by a roadside mine. 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.


Background

In June 2014, a joint military offensive was conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces against various groups in North Waziristan which has been the site of a wave of violence. The military offensive,
Operation Zarb-e-Azb Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Pashto/ ur, ALA-LC: ) was a joint military offensive conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces against various militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Eas ...
, was launched in the wake of the 8 June attack on Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, for which the TTP claimed responsibility. It is part of the ongoing war in North-West Pakistan in which more than 2,100 have been killed so far, and, according to the Army, almost 90% of North Waziristan has been cleared.


Attack

The day of the attack a total of 1,099 students and staff were registered in the school. The attack began at around 10:30 A.M. When seven gunmen, wearing explosive belts entered the school after having scaled the walls. Army Public School is located at Warsak Road near the Peshawar Cantt, and is a part of Army Public Schools and College Systems that runs 146 schools across Pakistan. Before entering the school, the gunmen set fire to the Suzuki Bolan ST41 van in which they had arrived. The terrorists, bearing automatic weapons and grenades, moved straight toward the auditorium located at the centre of the complex and opened fire indiscriminately on the children who were gathered there for an assembly on first aid training. According to the Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the public relations department of the Pakistani military, Major-General
Asim Bajwa Asim Saleem Bajwa (Urdu, Punjabi: ) is a retired Pakistani three-star general who served as the chairman of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority from November 2019 to August 2021 and the special assistant to then Prime Minister Imran ...
, the terrorists did not intend to take any hostages but instead wanted to kill as many people as they could. As the terrorists opened fire, many of the people ran toward the two exits on the other side of the auditorium, but many of them were gunned down in the garden. Reports also surfaced that pupils were forced to watch teachers, including principal
Tahira Qazi Tahira Qazi (1 July 1951 – 16 December 2014) was a Pakistani educationist and principal of Army Public School Peshawar who was killed in the 2014 Peshawar school massacre, Peshawar school attack on 16 December 2014. Early life and career Ta ...
, killed in front of them. Within 15 minutes, the SSG teams had stormed the school and entered the premises from two sides in their heavy armoured vehicles and trucks. Immediately, the SSG personnel engaged the terrorists, preventing them from going after and killing other remaining teaching staff and students. The gunmen moved to the administration block of the school and took hostages there. One of them was shot by the military personnel near the auditorium, while the other five managed to make it to the administration block. The emergency trauma teams, and units of the
Army Medical Corps A medical corps is generally a military branch or officer corps responsible for medical care for serving military personnel. Such officers are typically military physicians. List of medical corps The following organizations are examples of medica ...
in military armoured vehicles were rushed to the school, Army Corps of Military Police and the provincial civilian Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police (KP Police) worked toward closing off any potential escape routes for the terrorists. Meanwhile, the SSG commandos had reached the area and surrounded the administration block. Most of the operation took place in the attempt to clear this block and rescue the hostages taken by the gunmen. Special teams of snipers and their spotters pinpointed the terrorists; one of the six attackers was killed by the snipers from the windows and air vents, while the other three were killed when the commandos stormed the building and rescued the remaining hostages in the process. Seven commandos, including two officers, were injured in the battle. A search and clearance operation was started immediately to defuse any IEDs planted by the gunmen within the school premises or in the suicide vests that the terrorists were wearing. The terrorists were in contact with their handlers during the attack, but soon after the SSG had moved in, the security forces intercepted the terrorists' communications. "We know who they are and who they were in contact with but details cannot be shared due to operation reasons. They were aware of locations and they must have carried out the recon of the area. And it is highly possible that someone from inside might have tipped them off", said Bajwa.


Victims

An estimated total of 1,099 people and teaching staff were present on the school premises. Responding forces were successful in rescuing approximately 960, though 121 were injured. 149 people were killed, including 133 children and school staff members. The provincial
Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( ur, ; ps, د خیبر پښتونخوا حکومت), is the provincial government of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Its powers and structure are set out in the provisions of the 1973 Consti ...
announced PKR 2,000,000 (US$11,300 approx.) as compensation to the kin of each of the deceased in the terror attack and PKR 200,000 (US$1,130 approx.) to the seriously injured.


Responsibility

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as revenge for Operation
Zarb-e-Azb Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Pashto/ ur, ALA-LC: ) was a joint military offensive conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces against various militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the East ...
, the Pakistani military's offensive in North Waziristan that started in summer 2014. TTP spokesman Muhammad Omar Khorasani said that "we targeted the school because the Army targets our families. We want them to feel our pain.", "Our six fighters successfully entered the Army school and we are giving them instructions from outside," said Khorasani by phone. Khorasani also said "Our suicide bombers have entered the school, they have instructions not to harm the children, but to target the Army personnel. It's a revenge attack for the Army offensive in North Waziristan." Later though the Taliban claimed contrary by putting out a statement saying, "More than 50 sons of important army officers were killed after being identified." The attacks were mainly coordinated by TTP leaders operating in Afghanistan. Moustafa Seyan Sediqyar was later killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan on 9 July 2016. On 18 December 2014, a video was released by TTP on their website showing a man named ''Umar Mansoor'' revealing that he was the mastermind behind the Peshawar School attack. However, the
Pakistan government The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territories ...
officials commented that the planning of the attack was actually carried out by Saddam Jan, who was instructed by ''Umar Mansoor'' on behalf of
Maulana Fazlullah Fazal Hayat (1974 – 14 June 2018), more commonly known by his pseudonym Mullah Fazlullah (Pashto/ ur, ), was an Islamist militant who was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, and was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Paki ...
. On 26 December 2014 at midnight, Jan was hunted and killed by the special forces in Khyber Agency in a secret hideout alongside six unidentified high-value targets.


Nationalities of the terrorists

The Pakistani intelligence community conducted an investigation to determine the nationalities of the terrorists, whom the FIA determined were all foreign fighters. The pictures of six of the gunmen were released by the Pakistani Taliban: *Abu Shamil (also went by Abdur Rehman) — a Chechen fighter and thought to be the ringleader of the group. *Nouman Shah Helmand — an Afghan citizen from Helmand Province; the U.S. had placed a $500,000
bounty Bounty or bounties commonly refers to: * Bounty (reward), an amount of money or other reward offered by an organization for a specific task done with a person or thing Bounty or bounties may also refer to: Geography * Bounty, Saskatchewan, a gh ...
upon Nouman. *Wazir Alam Herat — an Afghan citizen from Herat. *Khatib al-Zubaidi — an Egyptian citizen. *Mohammad Zahedi — a Moroccan citizen. *Jibran al-Saeedi — a
Saudi Saudi may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia * House of Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is c ...
citizen. The SIM card of the cell phone that was used by the terrorists was found to be registered to a woman belonging to the rural area of Hasilpur, Punjab.


Reactions

The attack sparked widespread reactions in Pakistan, receiving condemnations from public, government, political and religious entities, journalists, and other members of Pakistani society. Pakistani media reacted strongly to the events, with major newspapers, news channels and many commentators calling for renewed and strong action against militants, especially against TTP. International reaction to the attack was also widespread, with many countries and international organizations condemning the attack and expressing their condolences to the families of the victims. Many important personalities around the world also condemned the attack. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack, calling it a national tragedy and announced a three-day mourning period during which the national flag would fly at half mast. President Mamnoon Hussain and chief ministers of four provinces reacted strongly to the attack and condemned it. Artists from around the world also expressed their concern and were very upset by this horrible act. Pakistani artist and singer
Shehzad Roy Shehzad Roy (born 16 February 1977) is a Pakistani singer-songwriter, guitarist, activist, social worker and humanitarian. He started his singing career in 1995 and has recorded six albums since. He has recorded many hit songs such as "Saali," ...
sang a new song for the victims of the Peshawar attack, which is now the official song on the National TV channel of Pakistan, PTV. Major Pakistani political entities denounced and heavily condemned the attack on innocent children, calling for a strong reaction against the militants.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...
leader Imran Khan calls off the protest. Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai condemned the attack, saying in a statement: "I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold-blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us". Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai said his "heart is bleeding" and his family is "traumatized" over the Peshawar school massacre. The terrorist organization
al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
's spokesperson said that "Our hearts are bursting with pain" and that the soldiers should be targeted, not their children. Following the attack, Pakistani authorities launched crackdowns on
Afghan refugee Afghan refugees are citizens of Afghanistan who were compelled to abandon their country as a result of major wars, persecution, torture or genocide. The 1978 Saur Revolution followed by the 1979 Soviet invasion marked the first wave of inter ...
settlements to apprehend illegal immigrants. During the period, at least 30,000 Afghans left for Afghanistan, out of which close to 2,000 were deported due to lack of legal documentation.


Aftermath

Many international media organizations referred to the attack as Pakistan's "
9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
". The popular opinion was one of anger against the TTP soon after the attacks. Pakistan's Government and its Armed Forces showed immediate reaction to the incident. According to the
Iranian-American Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...
scholar, Vali Nasr, "the Taliban may be trying to slacken the resolve of the military by suggesting that there could be a tremendous human costs to the military offensive and create public pressure on the military to back off from this offensive, but it may actually ricochet on them." On the second day after the attack, the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in terror-related cases by Nawaz Sharif after which
Mohammed Aqeel Mohammed Aqeel ( ur, ; alias Dr. Usman) (d. December 19, 2014, by hanging) was a Pakistani militant and member of the banned terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and former soldier in Pakistan Army Medical Corps where he worked until 2006. Ori ...
along with Arshad Mehmood, the convicted for a failed assassination attempt on the previous President, General Pervez Musharraf, were executed on 19 December. Protesters in Pakistan's capital Islamabad surrounded a pro-Taliban mosque and reclaimed the space. A series of candle vigils were held throughout Pakistan in solidarity with the victims. A number of international communities recorded their protest to condemn the attack. On 30 December 2014, Pakistani batsman Younis Khan visited the school. The Pakistani team played a test match against New Zealand on the second day after the massacre. Younis Khan handed over cricket kits and a cheque sent by the New Zealand cricket team. ISPR released the songs "Bara Dushman Bana Phirta Hai Jo Bachon Se Larta Hai" and "Mujhe Dushman Ke Bachon", to pay tribute to the victims. In 2015, Pakistan renamed 107 schools after school children killed during the massacre in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. The 2015 video game ''
Pakistan Army Retribution ''Pakistan Army Retribution'' is a Pakistani first-person shooter video game based upon the 2014 Peshawar school massacre. Developed as part of a peaceful campaign, it was designed as showing schoolchildren that "the best weapons are the pen an ...
'' is set during the Peshawar school massacre. After a negative review on the website of '' DAWN'', people on Twitter also outed their criticism on the game. ''Pakistan Army Retribution'' was pulled from the Google Play Store in January 2016.


Reopen

The Army Public School Peshawar was reopened on 12 January 2015 under the guard of Pakistan's security forces. To uplift the morale and spirit of the students and victims of the school, the Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, personally attended the morning assembly of the school and confirmed to them that no such incident will ever occur in Pakistan again as they will break the backbone of the Taliban.


Lifting of moratorium on executions of terrorists

On 17 December 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved paperwork to remove the moratorium on the death penalty in terror-related cases. Sources from the Prime Minister's Secretariat stated: "The Prime Minister has approved abolishment of moratorium on the execution of death penalty in terrorism-related cases." Pakistan has had a moratorium on executions since 2008. Currently there are approximately 800 people on death row in Pakistan in terrorism related cases. The move comes following the widely held perception that terrorists are never brought to justice in Pakistan. Many times, the judges and witnesses are too scared to come forward and award due sentences to the terrorists. And even when the terrorists are convicted and sent to prison, the frail policing system of Pakistan has seen many jailbreaks, including the Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan jailbreaks, in which many high-profile terrorists escaped. David Griffiths, Deputy Director for
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
Asia-Pacific opposed the decision, saying "Resorting to the death penalty is not the answer – it is never the answer. This is where the government should focus its energies, rather than perpetuating the cycle of violence with the resumption of executions."


Anniversaries and memorials

Yearly anniversary tributes are held in Peshawar, Pakistan with prayers, memorials and candlelight vigils. The main ceremony is held at the Peshawar Army Public School, with the parents of victims and Pakistani army officers in attendance, with portraits of victims displayed in the school and along the road into the city.


Retaliation


Retaliatory UAV and air-strikes

Since the school attack, the combined unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and air-strikes on terrorists have been geared up, and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is on a manhunt for
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan The Pakistani Taliban (), formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (Urdu/ ps, , lit=Student Movement of Pakistan, TTP), is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani bo ...
(TTP) chief
Mullah Fazlullah Fazal Hayat (1974 – 14 June 2018), more commonly known by his pseudonym Mullah Fazlullah (Pashto/ ur, ), was an Islamist militant who was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, and was the leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Paki ...
; he narrowly escaped a UAV strike on 25 November. On 17 December, the PAF's
F-16s The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...
and JF-17s jets engaged in bombings against terrorist hideouts in the Tirah Valley, close to the
Afghan-Pakistani border The Durand Line ( ps, د ډیورنډ کرښه; ur, ), forms the Pakistan–Afghanistan border, a international land border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Asia. The western end runs to the border with Iran and the eastern end to th ...
targeting 57 terrorists. Twenty additional aerial bombing missions were carried out using dynamic targeting. On 16 December, a United States
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
UAV strike killed four TTP terrorists in eastern Afghanistan. On 20 December, another UAV strike targeted and killed five suspected terrorists in North Waziristan, and according to officials, the death toll was expected to rise. During the same time, around 21 TTP terrorists were reportedly killed by PAF strikes in Khyber Agency as they attempted to escape to Afghanistan. On 20 December 2014, an unconfirmed media report stated that Fazlullah was killed by PAF air-strikes in Afghanistan.
Air Intelligence The Directorate General Air Intelligence, known as "Air Intelligence" and its acronym "AI", ( ur, ) is the intelligence arm of the Pakistan Air Force. It is headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islami ...
and the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
(MoD) have not commented on the report; no official response was given by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) over the reports. Mastermind of the attack, Umar Mansoor, was reported to have been wounded in a United States drone strike in Paktia Province of Afghanistan on 17 October 2017. He was shifted to an undisclosed location and reportedly succumbed to his injuries. TTP confirmed his death in a statement sent to journalists through e-mail and added that Khalifa Usman Mansoor will replace him as the new commander for the areas of
Darra Adam Khel Darra Adam Khel ( ps, درہ آدم خیل) is the main town of Kohat Subdivision (formerly known as "Frontier Region Kohat") in the Kohat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It has gained fame and notoriety for its bazaars packed with gun ...
and Peshawar.


Targeted killings of Tehrik-i-Taliban terrorists

Reports were circulating widely in televised news media about law enforcement agencies tracking down the militants and targeting
TTP TTP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Tractatus Theologico-Politicus'', a book by the philosopher Baruch Spinoza Biology * Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, a blood disorder * Tristetraprolin, a protein Computing * Terrori ...
operatives in a series of
police encounter A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...
s taking place in all over the country. After the school attack, Pakistani intelligence agencies chased down and apprehended four TTP terrorists in Quetta, before they could make their escape to Afghanistan. In a
police encounter A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...
with Karachi Metro Police and the Crime Investigation Department (CID), the TTP leader, Abid Muchar, was chased and gunned down along with his three associates in Musharraf Colony. In a separate action in Karachi, the CID teams, in a
high-speed chase A car chase or vehicle pursuit is the vehicular overland chase of one party by another, involving at least one automobile or other wheeled motor vehicle in pursuit, commonly hot pursuit of suspects by law enforcement. The rise of the automotive i ...
in Hawke's Bay Beach, pursued and apprehended five members of
Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
's South Asian chapter who are suspected of planning an attack on Karachi Naval Dockyard in September. On 20 December, a team of Pakistan Rangers personnel raided a safe house in
Manghopir Manghopir or Mangopir ( sd, ) is a neighbourhood in the Malir District, Malir district of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, that previously was a part of Gadap Town until 2011. There are several ethnic groups in Manghopir including Muhajir (Pakistan) ...
area of Karachi and killed five members of the TTP in a shootout. During the afternoon of 20 December, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police (KP Police) and the special agents of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided a safe house in Shabqadar, a town located north of Peshawar. In an exchange of fire at the safe house, the KPK police and other law enforcement agencies gunned down the six TTP fighters, including their commander and two other high-value targets who assisted in the school attack. Acting on Pakistani Military Intelligence information, Special Service Group Navy (SSGN) teams were inserted into the secret hideout in Khyber Agency and stalked the six terrorists led by Saddam Jan — the mastermind of the Army Public School attack. In a late night operation, the SSGN teams reportedly killed Jan along with his six militants. An unnamed senior
Pakistan Government The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territories ...
official confirmed the report. On 9 January 2015, the CID teams gunned down four Al-Qaeda operatives after another high-speed car chase took place in
Qayyumabad Qayyumabad ( ur, قیوم آباد ) is a suburb of Korangi Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-mos ...
in Karachi. In another separate midnight action in Lahore, teams of FIA agents, assisted by the Punjab Police, raided a house located in Burki Road. After an almost two-hour gun battle, the FIA agents gunned down Roohullah ( ''alias'': Asadullah) – the mastermind of the Wagah border attack – along with three of his associates. Since the attack on the school, the FIA had been on the hunt for Roohullah, and he was finally killed in a
police encounter A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...
in Lahore.


Communications with Afghanistan and ISAF

On 17 December, Pakistan's
Chief of Army Staff Chief of Army Staff or Chief of the Army Staff which is generally abbreviated as COAS is a title commonly used for the appointment held by the most senior staff officer or the chief commander in several nations' armies. * Chief of Army (Australia ...
General Raheel Sharif, accompanied by the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant-General
Rizwan Akhtar Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar ( ur, ) is a former three-star rank Pakistan Army general. He is a former spymaster who served as Director General of the ISI. He served from 8 November 2014 to 11 December 2016. On 8 Oct 2017, he announced hi ...
, went to Kabul to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and General John F. Campbell, the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. According to news sources in Pakistan, General Raheel asked for the handover of the TTP leadership and asked the Afghan government to act against hideouts of the Taliban terrorists in its territory. At the meeting with Afghan officials, General Raheel delivered a message to
Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia * Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
's Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General
Sher Mohammad Karimi General officer, General Sher Mohammad Karimi (born November 11, 1945) was the Chief of staff, Chief of Army Staff in the Military of Afghanistan. An ethnic Pashtun people, Pashtun, Karimi was born in Khost Province of Afghanistan. After the 197 ...
, "to take decisive action against sanctuaries of the TTP or else Pakistan would go for a hot pursuit." One intelligence official confirmed the message relayed to the Afghan president and reportedly cautioned that "if Afghan authorities fail to act this time, we will explore all options, including hot pursuit." In further talks, General Raheel told the Afghan president that "Pakistan's military could eliminate TTP's sanctuaries in Kunar and
Nuristan Province Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan (Dari: ; Kamkata-vari: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, wi ...
on its own but was showing restraint due to Afghanistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity." President Ghani assured General Raheel that his country would take all the necessary steps to root out the terrorists. A joint operation against the Taliban was also discussed with the Afghan leadership. In a media report published in ''The Nation'', Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan released a separate statement to Afghan president on a "hot pursuit" and has sent a message to Kabul reportedly stressing: "Wipe out Taliban or we will." The Pakistani military went into active pursuit in the form of manhunt missions after the attack. On the night of 18 December, the Pakistan Army's military units stalked the fleeing terrorists and immediately launched a simultaneous ground offensive in the Khyber Agency and the Tirah Valley when the terrorists were on the run to Afghanistan. In the assault, there were reports that some terrorists had fled and had left behind the dead bodies of their fellow terrorist companions – photos of which have been circulating on social media. In a separate air strike in Khyber Agency on the same night, the PAF's fighter aircraft reportedly hunted and killed a top commander and 17 other terrorists who were attempting to flee to Afghanistan. On 14 January 2015, five men were arrested in Afghanistan over suspicion of being involved in the attack in Afghanistan by Afghan security forces after the Pakistani authorities provided intelligence information. On 9 July 2016, the mastermind of the attack Khalid Khurasani was confirmed dead in a U.S. drone strike in Nangarhar, Afghanistan.


21st Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan

On 6 January 2015, both houses of the Parliament of Pakistan unanimously passed the "Constitution (Twenty-First Amendment) Act 2015", which was signed into law by the President on 7 January 2015. The Amendment provided a constitutional cover to the military courts that were established in the country for speedy trials of the terrorists. The Amendment contained a "
sunset Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spring ...
" clause and ceased to be part of the Constitution after two years on 7 January 2017.


In popular culture

'' Peshawar'' is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language web series by
Ullu Ullu is an Over-The-Top media streaming platform, owned and maintained by Vibhu Agarwal, founder and group CEO of Ullu and Atrangii. It is currently available for Android and iOS. Shows Web series Short films Controversy and Legal action ...
. It is based on the terrorist attack and focuses on the background of the incident.
Ashmit Patel Ashmit Patel (born 13 January 1978) is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood films and was seen on ''Bigg Boss''. Personal life Patel is the son of Amit Patel and Asha Patel, and the younger brother of actress and model Ameesha Patel, and ...
portrayed Abu Shamil, the Chechen militant who masterminded the attack and was ringleader of the terrorists.


See also

* Beslan school siege *
2017 Peshawar Agriculture Directorate attack On 1 December 2017, 3–4 gunmen arrived at the hostel of Agricultural Training Institute at Agricultural University Peshawar and started firing as a result of which at least 13 people were killed and 35+ were injured. Tehreek-e-Taliban claimed ...
*
Bacha Khan University attack On 20 January 2016, four terrorists opened fire at Bacha Khan University () near Charsadda, Pakistan. It is located in the Charsadda District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. At least 22
*
2013 Lahore bombing On 6 July 2013, a time-device bomb blast occurred in the food street of the Old Anarkali district, in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan. The blast killed five people and injured dozens of others. Background Lahore, the second largest city o ...
* 2014 Rada' bombings * List of hostage crises * Uzbek and Chechen terrorism in Pakistan *
Operation Zarb-e-Azb Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Pashto/ ur, ALA-LC: ) was a joint military offensive conducted by the Pakistan Armed Forces against various militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Eas ...
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Samjhauta Express bombing The 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred around midnight on 18 February 2007 on the Samjhauta Express, a twice-weekly train service connecting Delhi, India, and Lahore, Pakistan. Bombs were set off in two carriag ...
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Terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2014 This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2014. January – March * 1 January — A bomb blasted on the Qambrani road in Akhtarabad, Quetta near a bus, which was carrying at least 50 pilgrims from Iran to Pakistan. Police confirmed ...
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List of terrorist incidents, 2014 This is a list of terrorist incidents which took place in 2014, including attacks by violent non-state actors for political motives. Note that terrorism related to drug wars and cartel violence is not included in these lists. Ongoing military co ...
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Army Public Schools & Colleges System Army Public Schools & Colleges System or APSACS is one of the largest educational institutions of Pakistan which provides education till intermediate. APSAC System operates in 18 regions across Pakistan, with supervision by 18 Regional Director ...


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peshawar school attack 2014 murders in Pakistan 21st-century mass murder in Pakistan 2014 mass shootings in Asia Attacks in Pakistan in 2014 Terrorist incidents in Peshawar Deaths by firearm in Pakistan December 2014 crimes in Asia December 2014 events in Pakistan History of Peshawar Hostage taking in Pakistan Islamic terrorist incidents in 2014 Massacres in 2014 Mass shootings in Pakistan Murdered Pakistani children Operations involving Pakistani special forces School bombings School massacres in Pakistan Schools in Pakistan Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attacks Terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2014 Attacks on schools in Asia Incidents of violence against boys