We have killed all the children...What do we do now?:attackers

Peshawar, Dec 18: "We have killed all the children in the auditorium...What do we do now?" one of the Taliban attackers told his handler after shooting indiscriminately at the students in the main hall of the army-run school from where more than 100 bodies were recovered.

"Wait for the army people, kill them before blowing yourself," his handler ordered, instructing the suicide attackers who were executing one of the most gruesome attacks against children in recent history.

Citing a security official, the Dawn said it was one of the last conversations between the attackers and their handler on Tuesday shortly before two remaining suicide bombers charged towards the commandos positioned just outside the side entrance of the Army Public School's administration block.

"This and other conversations between the attackers and their handlers during the entire siege of seven and a half hours of the school form part of an intelligence dossier Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif shared with Afghan authorities" during his emergency visit yesterday, the paper said.

Pakistan has identified the attackers and it got the transcripts of the conversation between one of them named 'Abuzar', and his handler, 'commander' Umar, the paper said.

"Umar Adizai, also known as Umar Naray and Umar Khalifa, is a senior militant from the Frontier Region Peshawar," it said, adding that security officials believe he made the calls from Nazian district of Afghanistan's Nangrahar province.

Officials said 16 top Taliban militants, including its chief Mullah Fazlullah, planned the Peshawar massacre that killed 148 people, including 132 students, in the worst terrorist attack in the history of Pakistan.

The officials believe that out of seven attackers, five militants blew themselves up inside the administration block and two others outside it, the paper said.

Citing officials, Dawn said the attackers entered the building by climbing its rear wall, using a ladder and cutting barbed wire. They then stormed the main auditorium where an instructor was giving a first-aid lesson to senior students.

"Did the attackers have prior knowledge of the congregation in the main hall... This is one of the questions we are trying to find an answer to," a security official said.

The militants first shot dead a watchman standing at the rear of the auditorium.

Finding the rear door closed, they moved towards the two main entry and exit doors and this is where the main carnage appears to have taken place, the paper said, quoting a military officer who took part in the counter-assault.

"There were piles of bodies, most dead, some alive. Blood everywhere. I wish I had not seen this," the officer said.

The students in the hall appear to have rushed to leave the place after hearing the first round of shooting, and this was where they barged into the waiting militants who were blocking the two doors.

Inside the main hall, there was blood everywhere, almost on every inch of it. Shoes of students and women teachers lay asunder. Those who had hid behind rows of seats were shot -- one by one, in the head, the paper said.

"More than 100 bodies and injured were evacuated from the entrances and the hall," it added.

Security officials believe the death toll could have been far higher had the militants reached the junior section before the arrival of the special commandos.

"Four of the militants blew themselves up inside the lobby of the administration block when they were cornered. The impact was huge and devastating. There were pockmarks from the flying ball bearings and human flesh and hair were plastered to the ceiling and the walls," the paper said.

One of the bombers blew himself up in the office of Headmistress Tahira Qazi, whose body was recognised later. A leg of the bomber was lying around.

Two students and three staff members were killed in the administration block along with the headmistress.

The last two bombers moved towards the commandos who had taken positions on either side of the flank entrance to the block.

One of them exploded himself and after a while, the second one did, injuring some commandos.