Pakistan mourns after Taliban Peshawar school massacre

The Pakistani city of Peshawar is burying its dead after a Taliban attack at a school killed at least 132 children and nine staff. Mourners crowded around coffins bedecked with flowers, after candlelit vigils were staged overnight.
Gunmen had walked from class to class shooting students in the Pakistani Taliban's deadliest attack to date.
PM Nawaz Sharif has declared three days of mourning over the massacre, which has sparked national outrage.
World leaders have also voiced disgust at the attack, which even the Afghan Taliban have criticised.
Separately, Pakistan's army says it launched air strikes at militants in the Khyber and North Waziristan areas, although it is not yet clear if this was a direct response to the school attack. An offensive against the militants has been going on since June.
Mr Sharif also convened a meeting of all parliamentary parties in Peshawar to discuss the response.
The meeting on Wednesday was called to show that the whole nation stood against extremism, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid told reporters.
Classroom to classroom According to the army, Tuesday's attack was carried out by seven Taliban attackers, all wearing bomb vests.
They cut through a wire fence to enter the school from the rear and attacked an auditorium where children were taking an exam.
Gunmen then went from room to room at the military-run school, shooting pupils and teachers where they found them, survivors say.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif: "The anti-terrorism campaign in Pakistan will continue until terrorism is rooted out"

The siege at Peshawar's Army Public School, which teaches boys and girls from both military and civilian backgrounds, lasted eight hours.
A total of 125 people were wounded, according to the army, before all seven attackers were killed. Hundreds of people were evacuated.
The Pakistani Taliban sought to justify the attack by saying it was revenge for the army's campaign against them. The school was chosen as a target, the militants said, because their families had also suffered heavy losses.
In line with the Islamic custom, mourners began burying victims as darkness fell on Tuesday.
The bier carrying the shrouded body of one teacher was strewn with flowers as men crowded around it.
Mohammad Hilal, a student in the 10th grade, was shot three times in his arm and legs when the gunmen stormed the school auditorium.
"I think I passed out for a while. I thought I was dreaming. I wanted to move but felt paralysed. Then I came to and realised that actually two other boys had fallen on me. Both of them were dead," he told the BBC.
Zulfiqar Ahmad, 45, the head of the mathematics department who was shot four times during the attack told the BBC he did not believe any of the 18 students in his class had survived the attack.
The victims are also being mourned elsewhere, with India's parliament observing a minute's silence in their honour.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his country's "deepest
condolences".
Our children's blood'
Mr Sharif pledged to avenge a "national tragedy unleashed by savages".
"We will take revenge for each and every drop of our children's blood that was spilt today," he said.
Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban for championing girls' rights to education, also condemned "these atrocious and cowardly acts".
"Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this," she said.
In line with the national mourning, Pakistani embassies worldwide will have their flags lowered to half-mast and books of condolences will be opened.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khurasani said the militants had been "forced" to launch the attack in response to army attacks.
He accused the military of killing the children and womenfolk of Taliban fighters and burning their homes.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in the recent Pakistan army offensive in the Khyber area and North Waziristan, regions close to the Afghan border.
16 December 2014: Taliban attack on school in Peshawar leaves at least 141 people dead, 132 of them children
22 September 2013: Militants linked to the Taliban kill at least 80 people at a church in Peshawar, in one of the worst attacks on Christians
10 January 2013: Militant bombers target the Hazara Shia Muslim minority in the city of Quetta, killing 120 at a snooker hall and on a street
28 May 2010: Gunmen attack two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in Lahore, killing more than 80 people
18 October 2007: Twin bomb attack at a rally for Benazir Bhutto in Karachi leaves at least 130 dead. Unclear if Taliban behind attack
In Afghanistan itself, the local Taliban described the school attack as un-Islamic.
The Afghan Taliban are currently stepping up their own atta
cks in Afghanistan and share roots with the Pakistani Taliban and usually share the same ideology too, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports from Kabul.
But their spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that they were sending their condolences to the families of the children killed in the Peshawar attack and that they shared their sadness.
US President Barack Obama said terrorists had "once again shown their depravity" while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it was "an act of horror and rank cowardice".