Gunmen Kills 20 At Pakistani University!

News just coming in now confirms that at-least twenty people have died after several gunmen stormed a university in Pakistan and opened fire today, according to Pakistani officials.

The official death toll was at 20, according to the provincial Gov. Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, and the military operation at the Bacha Khan University has ended. At least 50 more have been injured in the attack.

Four shooters have also been killed, a Pakistani military source told ABC News.

Students, university staff and at least one professor are among the dead.

Gunmen stormed the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Pakistan, through a rear entrance, according to witnesses, and reportedly began breaking down doors to shoot at students. Witnesses report having also heard several explosions.

Pakistani Prime Minister Mawaz Sharif is in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum at Davos and issued a statement to Pakistan's government media: "Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharifis deeply grieved over the sad incident of terrorists' attack on Bacha Khan University, Charsada, which has reportedly resulted into the loss of precious human lives and injured many others. Issuing necessary directions to the law enforcement agencies for the earliest elimination of the terrorists, the Prime Minister is personally monitoring the situation and he is continuously informed on the measures taken to combat the terrorists."

 Omar Mansoor, the leader of a Pakistani Taliban splinter group and planner of the December 2014 Peshawar school massacre, has claimed responsibility for today’s attack.

Another report says; A security official told Reuters that the eventual death toll could rise to as high as 40.

A spokesman for rescue workers, Bilal Ahmad Faizi, said 19 bodies had been recovered including students, guards, policemen and at least one teacher, named by media as chemistry professor Syed Hamid Hussain.

Many of the dead were apparently shot in the head, TV footage showed.

Reuters also has this account of the how the attack unfolded:

The militants, using the cover of thick, wintry fog, scaled the walls of the university before entering buildings and opening fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels, police said.

Students told media they saw several young men wielding AK-47 guns storming the university housing where many students were sleeping.

“They came from behind and there was a big commotion,” an unnamed male student told a news channel from a hospital bed in Charsadda’s District Hospital. “We were told by teachers to leave immediately. Some people hid in bathrooms.”
Television footage showed military vehicles packed with soldiers driving into the campus as helicopters buzzed overhead and ambulances lined up outside the main gate while anxious parents consoled each other.
Shabir Khan, a lecturer in the English department, said he was about to leave his university housing for the department when firing began.

“Most of the students and staff were in classes when the firing began,” Khan said. “I have no idea about what’s going on but I heard one security official talking on the phone to someone and said many people had been killed and injured.”