A horrific attack at a Peshawar school shows where the heaviest burden of terrorism lies

http://qz.com/india/

A group of Taliban gunmen have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, and the reported death toll is horrifying.

At least 100 people, including over 80 children have been killed in the attack, and hundreds of students and teachers may still be inside. A Taliban spokesman told wire services that the militants have orders to kill the older children and release the younger ones.

“It’s a revenge attack for the army offensive in North Waziristan,” spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani told Reuters.

The Taliban’s motive

Peshawar is home to the Pakistan Army’s XI Corps, which is responsible for the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Afghan border—and is spearheading the military’s operations in the restive tribal belt of North Waziristan.

In recent months the army’s offensive in northwestern Pakistan has pushed more Taliban into Peshawar, where they have stepped up attacks on government forces and launched a campaign of extortion, killings, and kidnappings.

Pakistan’s heavy terror toll

Although Pakistan is no stranger to widespread terror attacks, there is very little precedent for an assault involving hundreds of children.

Pakistan is one of the world’s worst terror-affected countries, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2014 (pdf), with almost 2,000 incidents in 2013 that killed 2,345 people and injured a little over 5,000. The TTP, as the Pakistani Taliban is also known, was responsible for a quarter of all deaths and 49% of all the claimed attacks.

In the country’s deadliest terror attack last year, over 100 people died when a water-tanker full of explosives was detonated at a market in Quetta in August.

In 2013, only five countries—Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria—were responsible for about 60% of the world’s total terrorist incidents, and most of the terror-related fatalities.