Schools shut after Pakistan bombing

Schools and colleges across Pakistan were closed today after suicide bombers killed eight people and injured 18 when they hit a university. Two women and the two attackers, were among the dead of which all but one were students. The suspected militants bombed a university close to the capital, Islamabad, yesterday, the attack stoking fear across the country as the army presses on with a major drive against the Taliban. A women's cafe was hit at lunchtime along with the Islamic law department. There were between 3,000 and 4,000 students on the campus at the time, witnesses told Dawn News.

Nearly half the university’s 18,000 students are women. Many of the students come from abroad, including about 700 from China. Although it is an Islamic university, most students take courses such as management science or computer studies. Many students did not accept that militants were behind the attack and instead blamed shadowy forces out to discredit Islam or weaken Pakistan. “It shows clearly that anti-Islamic elements are involved in these attacks,” Abul Hassan, an economics student, told The Times newspaper. Schools and colleges in all the major cities were closed by the government until the end of the week so they can improve security measures, after intelligence reports that the militants could attack educational institutions.

The twin bombing was the latest in a series of militant attacks over the past two weeks but the first since Pakistani security forces launched an attack against Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds in South Waziristan on Saturday. In the run-up to the operation, militants attacked a police station in Peshawar, a United Nations office, the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and three different police facilities in Lahore on the same day. “It seems that [militant] sympathisers or collaborators are doing this to divert attention from the military operation,” Anwar Hussain Siddiqui, the university’s president, said. “They are trying to create panic in the capital city.” The bombings were in revenge for the long-awaited military operation, said Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister. “The militants are testing our nerves,” Mr Malik said. Authorities have also launched a crackdown on the capital’s Islamic seminaries after intelligence agencies said that they were harbouring terrorists.

About 30,000 troops are up against about 12,000 insurgents in what is seen as the army’s toughest challenge in the region since the fall of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001. Thousands of refugees are fleeing the battle zone, according to aid agencies adding to about 112,000 people made homeless since June. The aid agencies warned that the total number of refugees could rise to 250,000 in the next few weeks.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children