All four militants killed in attack on university

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

The Pakistani army on Wednesday assumed control of a university campus following a four-hour gun battle with militants -- after the latter killed 25 people, mostly students -- in the northwestern Charsadda district near the Afghan border, according to a local official.

All four attackers were killed in the gunfight, which evoked memories of a similar gun-and-bomb assault on an army-run school in the neighboring city of Peshawar in December 2014 in which over 140 people, mostly students, lost their lives.

According to a tweet by Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, a military spokesman, army commandos had since managed to establish control over the campus of Bacha Khan University.

Mopping-up operations, however, were still underway, he added.

Early Wednesday, heavily-armed attackers scaled the rear wall of the campus and opened fire on students and faculty members who had gathered to attend a poetry recital.

Shaukat Yusufzai, the information minister for Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told reporters that over 25 people -- including an assistant professor and two female students -- had been killed in the attack.

Sixty others, he said, had been injured.

Local police put the death toll at 19. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Turkey’s foreign affairs ministry strongly condemned the attack in a written statement. The ministry also expressed Turkey’s condolences to the Pakistani government and people and said that Ankara is ready to support Pakistan in its fight against terrorism.

The attack was also "strongly" condemned in the U.S. where the Obama administration pledged to "stand side-by-side with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism".