Attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan underscore threat to region: White House

US says we stand with the people of the region against all forms of extremism and terrorism

WASHINGTON: The White House on Wednesday condemned attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying they underscore the ongoing threat that militants pose to the region.

"We offer our deepest condolences to the victims of the attacks and to their families, and we stand with the people of the region against all forms of extremism and terrorism," National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.



Armed militants killed at least 20 people at a university in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday. In Afghanistan, a Taliban suicide car bomber targeted a minibus carrying journalists working for a private Afghan television channel, killing seven employees in Kabul.

The militants, using the cover of thick, wintry fog, scaled the walls of the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda before entering buildings and opening fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels, police said.

The gunmen attacked as the university prepared to host a poetry to commemorate the death anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a popular ethnic Pashtun independence activist after whom the university is named.

The attack comes a little over a year after Taliban gunmen stormed Army Public School in December 2014 and slaughtered more than 150 people, most of them children, in an hours-long siege.



DG ISPR Lt Gen Asim Bajwa said security forces have gathered satisfactory information about the attackers on Bacha Khan University.

“We have gathered all relevant data about where these terrorists came from and who sent them,” he said while addressing the media.

“The terrorists were continuously conversing on their mobile phones, two of which we have recovered and collected data from,” he added.

Bajwa said it was a major success of the forces that within 45 minutes, the terrorists were contained inside the varsity.

“There were 52 guards of the Bacha Khan University who responded to the attackers, whereas within a short span of time LEAs also reached the site,” he said.