- School principal Tahira Kazi was set on fire by Taliban gunmen yesterday
- She was head of the Army Public School in Peshawar attacked by jihadists
- It's believed she was torched because she's married to a retired colonel
- Harrowing pictures of devastation at the school have been emerging
- One shows Mrs Kazi's office where a terrorist blew himself up
- Another shows a blood-splattered doorway leading to an auditorium
- 'Body parts and blood were flying like small pieces of cotton' - survivor
The
first devastating images emerged today of the blood-soaked classrooms
where 132 innocent children and nine teachers were massacred by the
Taliban.
Horrifying
pictures revealed the carnage wrought by seven extremist gunmen who
sprayed children with bullets as they sat receiving first aid tuition
and exploded suicide bombs in a room of 60 pupils.
As
the Pakistani city of Peshawar began the harrowing process of
conducting mass funerals, the family of a teacher torched alive in front
of her class gathered to say funeral prayers.
Tahira
Kazi, the principal of the Army Public School and College in Peshawar,
was set on fire by jihadists who slaughtered so many.
It
is believed she was targeted because she is married to a retired army
colonel, Kazi Zafrullah. The picture obtained by MailOnline shows her
standing proudly next to a student believed to be her son.
Today
the Pakistani prime minister lifted a moratorium on the death penalty,
as the school reopened to reveal the terrifying aftermath of the
atrocity, including Mrs Kazi's office, where a terrorist blew himself
up.
Tahira Kazi (left), the principal of
the Army Public School and College in Peshawar, was set on fire by
jihadists who slaughtered 142 people, most of them children
Devastation: Mrs Kazi's office, where a terrorist blew himself up during a nine-hour rampage
Harrowing: A blood-splattered doorway
leading to an auditorium at the school in Peshawar, with spectacles on
the floor belonging to one of the victims of the massacre
Shocking: The scene of the final gun battle between the jihadists and Pakistani soldiers
It is believed Mrs Kazi (right) was targeted because she's married to a retired army colonel, Kazi Javaid
Pictures of a blood splattered doorway leading to an auditorium and the scene of the final gun battle also emerged.
In a grim tour of the building photographers were shown inside the auditorium.
The
floor is caked in blood in places and dozens of chairs lie in disarray,
knocked over by children running for cover as the terrorists hosed them
with bullets.
The
lucky ones, it transpired, survived by playing dead under these chairs
as the gunmen stalked the room, searching for children they'd missed.
The
masscre led to calls for the death penalty to be restored. 'It was
decided that this moratorium should be lifted. The prime minister
approved,' said government spokesman Mohiuddin Wan, referring to Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif's approval of the decision by a ministerial
committee.
A moratorium on the death penalty was imposed in 2008 and only one execution has taken place since then.
The government declared a three-day mourning period, starting Wednesday.
Some
of the funerals were held overnight, but most of the 132 children and
10 school staff members killed in the attack were to be buried
Wednesday. Another 121 students and three staff members were wounded.
Meanwhile,
one shocking account of the massacre came from 13-year-old survivor
Ehsan Elahi, an eighth grade student who was busy with his classmates
learning first aid training from army instructors at the main hall of
the school when he heard the sound of gunfire nearby.
He
told MailOnline: 'Our teachers and instructors asked us to calm down
but the sound of the bullets started came closer and closer. In the next
minute, the glass of windows and doors of the hall smashed with
bullets. Some people started kicking the hall doors.'
He said that situation created panic among the 100 students in the hall.
He
said: 'Everybody was trying to find a place to hide but there was not
such places in the hall. The students were crying and weeping. There
were only chairs and benches to hide behind in the hall. I jumped behind
a bench and laid on the ground.' He said the attackers burst in and
started 'spraying bullets like hell'.
Tragic scene: Pakistani journalists film and photograph inside an auditorium of the Army Public School
Chairs are upturned and blood stains the floor at the Army Public School auditorium
Survivor Ehsan Elahi told how gunmen burst into the auditorium and fired at children for a full 10 minutes
Army commandos fought the Taliban in a day-long battle until the school was cleared and the attackers dead
Books and note paper litter the floor of the school, dropped as children ran for their lives
Nightmare scene: The pictures of the school's interior emerged as Pakistan began three days of mourning
A local reporter walks past a damaged wall of the Army Public School, riddled with bullet holes
Hifsa Khush is thought to have been burned alive in front of her pupils after being doused in petrol.
Elahi
continued: 'I saw army instructors falling on the ground first. I saw
many of my friends getting bullets on their heads, chests, arms and legs
right in front of me. Their body parts and blood were flying like small
pieces of cotton in the class room.
'Warm
blood and flesh of my friends fell on my face and other parts of my
body. It was horrible. They kept on firing bullets for at least 10
minutes and then stopped. It was a pause of a maximum of a minute. Next
moment, they started spraying bullets again towards those who were
crying with pain or moving. I also received two bullets on my right arm.
I wanted to cry with my full voice but I held my pain and did not cry
because it meant death.'
Elahi explained how his life was eventually saved by Pakistani soldiers.
He
said: 'They were not ready to leave alive even a single person present
in the hall. After around 15 minutes, we heard some bullets shots from
outside. I think army soldiers reached the school by that time and they
fired those bullets. This diverted the attention of the attackers. They
ran out from the hall. But, I did not move or cried for next 10 minutes
unless army men came to rescue us.
'The
hall has turned to pool of blood and death. Human blood, flesh and body
parts were scattered everywhere. I saw lifeless faces of many of my
friends when I was leaving the hall. Their faces are still in front of
my eyes.'
More
horrifying accounts have emerged of another female teacher being burned
alive as she courageously stood in the path of the terrorists and told
her children to run for their lives.
Afsha
Ahmed, 24, confronted the marauding gunmen when they burst into her
classroom and told them: 'You can only kill my students over my dead
body.'
The militants doused her with petrol and set her alight, but she still mustered the strength to beckon her pupils to flee.
One of her students, 15-year-old Irfan Ullah, wept as he recalled her incredible bravery.
He said: 'She was a hero, so brave.
'She jumped up and stood between us and the terrorists before they could target us.
'She
warned them: "You can only kill them over my dead body". I remember her
last words - she said: "I won't see my students lying in blood on the
floor".'
Irfan,
who suffered serious injuries to his chest and stomach in the chaos,
said he hoped Mrs Ahmed would forgive him for not trying to protect her
and for any mistakes he ever made in class.
'I
felt so selfish as we ran away to safe our lives instead of trying to
save our teacher who sacrificed her life for our better tomorrow,' he
added.
Another teacher, Hifsa Khush, is also thought to have been burned alive in front of her pupils after being doused in petrol.
Prayer
vigils were held across the nation and in other schools, students spoke
of their shock at the carnage in Peshawar, where seven Taliban gunmen,
explosives strapped to their bodies, scaled a back wall using a ladder
to get into the military-run establishment in the morning hours on
Tuesday.
REVEALED: THE BLOODTHIRSTY TALIBAN LEADER DUBBED 'RADIO MULLAH' BEHIND PAKISTANI SCHOOL MASSACRE - WHO ALSO ORDERED MALALA HIT
The
bloody slaughter of 132 children at a school in Pakistan yesterday was
ordered by Maulana Fazlullah - the head of the country's Taliban terror
group and a man whose previous crimes include ordering the murder of
teenage education campaigner Malala Yousafzai.
The
firebrand militant, whose thick black beard reaches halfway down his
chest, took control of the Pakistani Taliban 13 months ago, and it is
thought yesterday's 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.
Terror leader: Maulana Fazlullah - the
firebrand militant, whose thick black beard reaches halfway down his
chest - took control of the Pakistani Taliban 13 months ago
Born
Fazal Hayat in 1974 in the Swat Valley, Fazlullah is a member of
the Yousafzai tribe - the same group of ethnic Pashtuns from which
Malala takes her surname.
Aged
18 he became the leader of the local terror group
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi after its leadership was decimated
by arrests following the September 11 attacks in New York.
In
the hope of cementing his legitimacy as leader, Fazlullah married the
daughter of Sufi Muhammad, who founded
Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi in 2002. Rumours that his henchmen
kidnapped the bride and forced her to marry him have dogged Fazlullah
ever since.
While
in jail, Muhammad ordered Fazlullah to adopt his new name and sent him
reams of radical Islamic literature designed to assist and guide his son
in law.
By
the time Muhammad was released from prison in 2008, Fazlullah's
leadership was secure enough for its founder not to resume control.
Later
that year Fazlullah allied Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi with
the Pakistani Taliban, and he started taking direct orders from Taliban
leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
This relationship would allow Fazlullah to become increasingly close to senior figures in the terror group.
While
taking orders from the Pakistani Taliban, Fazlullah controlled more
than 4,000 fighters - helping him to effectively run a parallel
government in the Swat Valley and impose strict Sharia law across 57
villages.
It
was while governing the Swat Valley that Fazlullah began using FM radio
stations to broadcast his firebrand sermons in the area, earning him
the nickname Radio Mullah.
His
rantings about 'sins' such as television, music, and computers were
deemed compulsory listening among the villagers as the Taliban imposed a
rigorous version of Islamic law, publicly beheading and flogging
wrongdoers and burning schools.
Rise to power: Maulana Fazlullah was
elected as head of the Pakistani Taliban after the death in a U.S. drone
strike of long-term leader Hakimullah Mehsud (pictured centre in brown
hat)
In
2012 Fazlullah ordered the death of Malala Yousafzai - the teenage
education campaigner who almost died when a masked gunman in Swat Valley
jumped into a vehicle taking girls home from school and shouted 'Who is
Malala?' before shooting her in the head.
Last
November Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by a U.S. drone
strike, leading to the Taliban's supreme council electing Fazlullah as
its new head.
Since
then, the militant has specialised in the kind attention grabbing
savagery that deflects attention away from the Taliban's declining
influence in Swat Valley, which has been eroded by bitter feuds with
local clans - including the traditionally dominant Mehsud tribe.
Fazlullah
has also found his power reined in by the Pakistani military's fresh
push into the Taliban's former North Waziristan stronghold.
In
September Fazlullah also declared the Taliban's support for the Islamic
State and vowed to send fighters to assist the terror group as it was
wages bloody war in Syria and Iraq.
Yesterday's
brutal massacre of schoolchildren is widely seen as an attempt
by Fazlullah to prove to his rivals that the Taliban is still a relevant
force.
The
strategy may not be particularly well thought out, however, as it is
only likely to add to the tribal divisions that have drastically
weakened the group over the past year.
People attend the funeral of a student killed in Tuesday's Taliban attack in Peshawar
The
attack was the deadliest slaughter of innocents in the country and
horrified a nation already weary of unending terrorist assaults.
Army commandos fought the Taliban in a day-long battle until the school was cleared and the attackers dead.
'They
finished in minutes what I had lived my whole life for, my son,' said
laborer Akhtar Hussain, tears streaming down his face as he buried his
14-year-old, Fahad. He said he had worked for years in Dubai to earn a
livelihood for his children.
'That
innocent one is now gone in the grave, and I can't wait to join him, I
can't live anymore,' he wailed, banging his fists against his head.
The
Taliban said the attack was revenge for a military offensive against
their safe havens in the northwest, along the border with Afghanistan,
which began in June. Analysts said the school siege showed that even
diminished, the militant group still could inflict horrific carnage.
The
attack drew swift condemnation from around the world. President Barack
Obama said the 'terrorists have once again showed their depravity.'
Pakistan's
teenage Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai - herself a survivor of a
Taliban shooting - said she was 'heartbroken' by the bloodshed.
Even Taliban militants in neighboring Afghanistan decried the killing spree, calling it 'un-Islamic.'
Pakistani
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to step up the campaign that -
along with U.S. drone strikes - has targeted the militants.
'We
will take account of each and every drop of our children's blood,' said
Sharif, who rushed to Peshawar shortly after the attack to offer
support for the victims.
In
neighboring India, which has long accused Pakistan of supporting
anti-India guerrillas, schools on Wednesday observed two minutes of
silence for the Peshawar victims at the urging of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, who called the attack 'a senseless act of unspeakable
brutality.'
Ziauddin Yousafzai, Pakistani diplomat and the father of Malala Yousafzai, told the BBC Today programme that his family was traumatised by the atrocity.
He said: '‘Yesterday we heard about this horrible news, my whole family was in trauma. It is the extreme of extremism.
‘I can imagine how much sadness, terror and horror those families will be passing through now.
‘Yesterday
my wife had a fit, she went into unconsciousness for five to 10
minutes. I have never seen my daughter so sad and upset as I saw her
yesterday.
‘Schools
should be safe places for children. I am afraid that if they [Taliban]
are not countered, we may see more horrible things in future.’
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