Hours after the Bacha Khan University (BKU) in Charsadda district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) reopened on Monday, Lollywood actor Veena Malik visited the campus.
According to reports, Malik reached BKU to take part in a Quran Khawani and peace walk being held for the 22 martyrs of Wednesday’s brazen attack at the educational institution.
Upon returning to Pakistan this month, Veena told the media about her plans to participate in human rights campaigns and other goodwill social activities. The actor said she had planned a visit to Peshawar’s Army Public School (APS), and also produce a song for APS victims.
Bacha Khan University reopens amid tight security
After a closure of almost one week due to a deadly terrorist rampage, the Bacha Khan University (BKU) in Charsadda district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) reopened amid stringent security.
People belonging from different walks of life started to gather at the university early on Monday to take part in the Quran Khawani, Radio Pakistan reported.
A peace walk is also expected to be held from the BKU to the main Bazaar of the district later in the day which will be joined by a number of people belonging to the civil society to pay homage to the victims of the terror incident and to show solidarity with their relatives.
More than a year after a bloody Taliban rampage at a military-run school in Peshawar, terrorists had killed 25 people in a near-identical attack on the state-run university in nearby Charsadda district Wednesday morning. The heroics of campus guards had, however, prevented bloodshed as they engaged the terrorists before security forces moved in under thick fog to eliminate the attackers.
Four terrorists, armed with sub-machine guns, pistols and hand grenades, had launched the attack around 8:45 when the campus was enveloped in thick morning fog. According to eyewitnesses and officials, the terrorists scaled the back wall of the campus and entered the guest house of the vice chancellor where they shot dead assistant caretaker Fakhre Alam before they went on to a murderous spree.
Soon after the incident, Khalifa Omar Mansoor, the chief of the Darra Adam Khel and Khyber Agency chapter of the TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack. Speaking by cell phone from somewhere in Afghanistan, Khalifa Mansoor told The Express Tribune that his group had sent suicide bombers to carry out the attack. He named the attackers as Omar, Osman, Ali Muhammad and Abid.
However, TTP central spokesperson Muhammad Khurasani said their fugitive leader Maulana Fazlullah had nothing to do with the attack. “We will try those who used the name of the Taliban for this attack in a Sharia court,” he said in an email sent to journalists.