Pak, NZ teams honour Charsadda martyrs with one-minute silence

WELLINGTON: The Pakistan and New Zealand cricket teams observed a minute-long silence before their third T20 match on Friday to honours the victims of the brutal terrorist attack on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda.

To pay tribute to the martyrs and express solidarity with the affected families, players from both teams and spectators observed a minute of silence at the Wellington Cricket Stadium here before the match started at 11:00 am (Pakistan Standard Time).

At least 21 persons, including security guards, students, a professor, and policemen were killed and dozens injured when the terrorists launched a brazen assault on the varsity in northwestern Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday.

The gunmen sneaked into the varsity early in the morning using the cover of thick, wintry fog, opening fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels. It took a six-hour long counter-operation to clear the campus before the army announced that all four gunmen were dead.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif has said that the terrorist attack was coordinated and managed from across the border in Afghanistan.

The attack came a year after Taliban terrorists brutally massacred over 140 people, mostly children, in a similar attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, hardening public opinion against extremism and prompting the government to launch a nationwide military operation against terrorism.