University attacked in Pakistan

This item appears on page 15 of the March 2016 issue.

In the northwestern Pakistan city of Charsadda on Jan. 22, four men attacked Bacha Khan University with bombs and guns, killing 19 people and injuring 17 others. The gunmen were killed by armed school security guards and police after a 3-hour standoff.
The Pakistani division of the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement, took credit for the attack, but the spokesperson for the main body of the Taliban said the group was not involved and described the attack as “un-Islamic.”
Bacha Khan University has nearly 3,000 enrolled students. It is named after a Pashtun leader who supported nonviolent opposition to British rule during the British Raj.