By Fazal Rahman, Ph.D. January 24, 2016
Umar Mansoor (with long beard in the center) with the young attackers
This is a brief comment on the January 20, 2016 attack on the students and faculty of the Bacha Khan University (BKU) in Charsadda, Khyberpaktunkhwa (KPK) Province, in Pakistan, by four young militants of a Taliban faction, which is lead by Umar Mansoor, who also had masterminded the December 16, 2014 attack on Army Public School (APS) at Peshawar, in the same province, in which 150 students and faculty were killed and 121 wounded. Reports of figures for the BKU attack vary between 22 to 50 killed and dozens injured. All four of the young attackers from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were also killed by the security forces. I had written an article on the APS attack with the following link, in which I analyzed the nature and causes of state and non-state terrorism, as well as the foundation of these in the US and NATO invasions and wars in South Asia. That analysis is also applicable to these problems in the Middle East and elsewhere. This comment should be read within the context and analysis of that earlier paper. As mentioned in that paper, thousands of people in the FATA-in which Umar Mansoor is a member of one of the tribes-have been killed and wounded in the Pakistani military operations and US drone attacks (actual figures, which are likely to be much higher, are not available, as journalists and others are not allowed in the attacked areas), and one million made homeless and internally displaced persons, and thousands fleeing to Afghanistan as refugees. Continue reading
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