Pakistan seeks Afghanistan’s help to track down Taliban leaders

DHAKA, Dec. 18 (NsNewsWire) — Pakistan’s army chief, General Raheel Sharif, travelled to Afghanistan on Wednesday to seek help in locating the Pakistani Taliban commanders who orchestrated the massacre at a Peshawar school Tuesday in which 148 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed.

Sharif and the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, Lt. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, flew to Kabul, the capital, for meetings with President Ashraf Ghani and General John F. Campbell, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, the Pakistani military said,  reports The Irish Times.

The sudden trip came as Pakistanis united in horror and grief at Tuesday’s assault, in which Taliban gunmen stormed the Army Public School and Degree College, firing randomly, throwing grenades and lining up some students to be executed. Of the 148 fatalities, 132 were students

Journalists were shown around the blood-splattered school buildings where the killings took place. Clothes, shoes and schoolbooks were scattered about the deserted hallways. One military officer wept as he accompanied a reporter around the scene.