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![Mourners attend the funeral of a student who was killed in an attack by militants on an army-run school in northwest Pakistan's Peshawar on Dec. 16, 2014 [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/133859778_14187727461941n.jpg)
Mourners attend the funeral of a student who was killed in an attack by militants on an army-run school in northwest Pakistan’s Peshawar on Dec. 16, 2014 [Xinhua]
The Taliban massacred 132 children and 9 staff at an army school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday.
Neighbouring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was a “senseless act of unspeakable brutality”. The Indian Parliament on Wednesday morning “observed two minutes of silence in solidarity with the people of Pakistan in the wake of the terror attack in Peshawar”.
“Strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack at a school in Peshawar. It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings – young children in their school. My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today. We share their pain & offer our deepest condolences,” tweeted Modi.
China on Tuesday also strongly condemned the terrorist attack.
“We are deeply shocked and grieved by the attack and condemn in the strongest terms the terrorists,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement issued on Tuesday night.
Stressing China opposes terrorism in any form, Qin said China will continue to firmly support the unremitting Pakistani efforts to fight terrorism, safeguard national stability and save people’s lives.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the act of violence, saying that it occurred in retaliation for recent army operations against militants in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas.
After more than eight hours of battle with militants, the Pakistan army announced that all nine insurgents had been killed on Tuesday.
The Dilma Rousseff administration in Brazil also “strongly condemned” the attack.
“Brazil reiterates its rejection of violence and its categorical condemnation of terrorist acts, regardless of their motivations,” said a Brazilian Foreign Ministry statement.
Eyewitness accounts from injured children recounted how the attackers with suicide vests had indiscriminately open fired on the children and the staff.
“The massacre today of more than 100 children in an attack on a school in Pakistan, and the reported killing of at least 15 school girls in a car bombing in Yemen, mark a dark day in the closing weeks of a bleak year for children around the world,” UNICEF said in a press release Tuesday.
Meanwhile, South Africa has stated Pretoria will “continue to support regional and international efforts to address the scourge of terrorism in all its forms”.
“Deliberate attacks against schools and denying children the right to an education are contraventions of well-established international human rights and humanitarian law and constitute a crime against humanity,” said a South African Foreign Ministry statement.
TBP
