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Pakistan Names 107 Schools After Peshawar Massacre Victims


Students get their bags checked by school security staff at a school after it reopened in Peshawar in January.
Students get their bags checked by school security staff at a school after it reopened in Peshawar in January.

Pakistan is renaming dozens of government-run schools in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region after the school children in Peshawar who were killed by Taliban militants in a December massacre.

The school attack by six gunmen linked to the Pakistani Taliban killed 153 students, teachers, and staff at the school -- almost all of them schoolchildren.

A total of 107 schools in the northwestern province will bear the name of the slain Peshawar students.

The provincial education minister, Atif Khan, said Pakistan “will never ever forget these students and their sacrifices.”

The Pakistani Taliban, headed by Maulana Fazlulah, claimed responsibility for the massacre and said it was a response to a military offensive by Pakistani security forces against militants in the volatile tribal region of North Waziristan.

The massacre has hardened Pakistan’s resolve to fight Islamic extremists along the country's lawless border with Afghanistan.

Based on reporting by Reuters and BBC
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