Pakistan university attack shatters dreams, stokes fear

CHARSADDA, Pakistan – When militants stormed the university campus in Charsadda, Pakistan, chemistry professor Hamid Hussain was carrying a concealed pistol. Locking his students in his classroom, he opened fire on the assailants, buying his pupils enough time to escape before he was gunned down.

The survival of Hussain’s students in a massacre that left 20 others dead is a legacy of a bloodbath that targeted another school in northwestern Pakistan two years earlier. After that 2014 attack, in which 150 people, mostly children, were killed, the government trained educators to carry concealed weapons so they could be a first line of defense – giving security forces time to react.

Hussain, the 32-year-old son of an impoverished shopkeeper who despite his humble heritage earned a Ph.D. in chemistry in Britain, was praised as a hero Thursday for his quick action. His students managed to get away as he single-handedly took on the militants during the assault Wednesday that killed 19 students and another professor and wounded 22.

Hussain was shot twice, once in the head and once in the chest, just above his heart. His brother, Ashfaq Hussain, noticed a cut on his elder sibling’s right hand – an injury, he suggested, that could have been caused when he tried to reload his 9mm pistol and a sign of his limited training.

In his home village of Swebi, Hussain’s relatives mourned the death of a loving family man who dreamed of touring the world. Hussain was the first in his family to finish secondary school, let alone university, and his father had scrimped and saved to fund his son’s studies.

Among the mourners was Hussain’s 3-year-old son, clutching a bag of multi-colored candies.

A breakaway Taliban faction, headed by Khalifa Umar Mansoor, claimed responsibility for the assault.

In the Swiss resort of Davos, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said his country was determined to fight extremism in the wake of the Charsadda attack.

Sharif said the attack was the result of “blowback” from Pakistani authorities’ efforts to dismantle extremists’ infrastructure and hideouts. “The terrorists are on the run,” he contended. “Their ability to strike back has been considerably destroyed.”

As families buried the dead Thursday, Pakistanis observed a day of nationwide mourning.

There was tight security at all Pakistani schools and educational institutions, where schoolbags were scanned and teachers and students checked before being allowed in.

Several Pakistani opposition politicians criticized the government’s efforts to combat militancy. A National Action Plan was drawn up in the wake of the Peshawar school killing and included plans to set up counterterrorism cells and intelligence-sharing arrangements – neither of which has happened.

Speaking in his home village, just after his brother’s funeral, Ashfaq Hussain’s sadness was tinged with frustration. “If people can stand up to take bullets to their chest, why can’t the government take action?” he said.