We've killed all, what next?
Haunting details have emerged from the final conversation the Peshawar gunmen had with their handler moments before the end of Tuesday's brutal school massacre in Pakistan.
After slaughtering 132 school children and nine members of staff, militants contacted their commanders to say: “We have killed all the children in the auditorium. What do we do now?”
Wounded children have spoken from hospital of how many of their classmates were killed when the gunmen, wearing explosives strapped to their bodies, started to fire indiscriminately on students and their teachers.
Military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said many students were gathered for an event in the auditorium. Around 100 bodies were later recovered from this room alone, he said.
In the exchanges, reported by the Pakistan newspaper Dawn, one gunman called Abuzar appeals for directions from his handler, identified by officials as senior Taliban commander for the Peshawar region Umar Adizai.
Asked what the gunmen should do next, Umar responds: “Wait for the army people, kill them before blowing yourself up.”
This, the officials said, was one of the final conversations intercepted between the gunmen and their handlers, taking place moments before the two remaining militants charged the army's special operatives.
The transcripts have been released as part of an intelligence dossier Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif shared with officials in Afghanistan on Wednesday.
General Sharif travelled to Afghanistan to share “vital elements of intelligence”, a statement said, because officials believe the school massacre was ordered by the Pakistan Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.
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