A devastating pre-dawn missile strike on an Islamic school in Chingai in the remote Bajaur agency of Pakistan has left at least 80 students and teachers dead. The attack, which levelled the buildings and left just a handful of survivors, has provoked angry protests throughout the country.
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf claimed responsibility for the raid, alleging that all of the dead were “militants” undergoing training for attacks on US-led forces across the nearby border with Afghanistan. “Anyone who says that these people were innocent is telling lies”, he said.
Local villagers have insisted that children as young as five were among the victims. One of the survivors, Abu Bakar, 22, told the press from his hospital bed in Peshawar that only two other students—aged 15 and 16—were still alive. “There was no militant training in the madrassa”, he said. “We had come here to learn God’s religion.”
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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/pak-n01.shtml
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf claimed responsibility for the raid, alleging that all of the dead were “militants” undergoing training for attacks on US-led forces across the nearby border with Afghanistan. “Anyone who says that these people were innocent is telling lies”, he said.
Local villagers have insisted that children as young as five were among the victims. One of the survivors, Abu Bakar, 22, told the press from his hospital bed in Peshawar that only two other students—aged 15 and 16—were still alive. “There was no militant training in the madrassa”, he said. “We had come here to learn God’s religion.”
Please continue.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/pak-n01.shtml