Amid tight security, a prestigious university in north-western Pakistan reopened on Monday, days after it was attacked by the Taliban in which 21 people, mostly students, were killed.
Police said that Bacha Khan University (BKU) was reopened and additional security personnel have been deployed to take care of the university’s security.
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Classes would start on Monday with special prayers for the victims. Other educational institutions in Charsadda, which closed in the wake of the attack, also reopened.
Several people held a peace march in Charsadda in the memory of the victims and to express the resolve not to be cowed down by the militants.
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On Wednesday, four heavily-armed terrorists attacked BKU named after the iconic Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the volatile Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province which is located about 50 kilometres from Peshawar.
Authorities have arrested four facilitators who helped the attackers enter Pakistan and took them to Mardan city. They had entered Pakistan from Afghanistan via the Torkhum border.
Main facilitator still at large
However, the main facilitator, “terrorist A”, who received and made arrangements for the attackers at Torkhum border check-post, is still at large.
Officials have said that the attack on BKU was planned and controlled from Afghanistan as the phone call of commander Omer Mansoor, who later claimed responsibility, was made from Afghanistan.
A year after Peshawar massacre
The BKU assault came about a year after terrorists attacked an army-run school in Peshawar that killed nearly 150 people, most of them students.
The Pakistani military intensified an ongoing offensive, named operation Zarb-e-Azb, against extremists in the tribal areas after the 2014 attack.