Gunmen have attacked a university in northwestern Pakistan, injuring at least three people, and are still on the rampage, the vice chancellor told AFP Wednesday in the latest assault to hit the militant-infested region.
“Police told me that firing is continuing on the campus,” said Fazal Raheem Marwat, vice chancellor at the Bacha Khan university in Charsadda, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the city of Peshawar.
“Gunmen have entered the university campus from the southern side,” he said, adding that at least three people have been injured, one a university guard and two civilians.
“There are male and female staff members and students on the campus,” he said, adding he had been on his way to work when he was informed of the attack.
“There was no announced threat but we had already beefed up security at the university.”
Peshawar was the location of Pakistan’s deadliest ever extremist attack, when Taliban gunmen stormed an army-run school in December last year and slaughtered more than 150 people, most of them children, in an hours-long siege.
The attack on the school prompted a crackdown on extremism in Pakistan, with the military increasing an offensive against militants in the tribal areas where they had previously operated with impunity.
On Tuesday, a suicide attack at a market on the city’s outskirts killed 10 people as well as the bomber.
