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Gunmen kill at least 19 people in deadly assault on Pakistan university

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A militant gun attack has caused carnage at a university in north-west Pakistan, with at least 19 people dead and 50 injured.

An army official said firing had stopped several hours after the attack but troops were still searching Bacha Khan University campus in Charsadda.

Four attackers were killed, the army said, amid conflicting reports about whether the Taliban were involved.

Taliban gunmen killed 130 students at a school in nearby Peshawar in 2014.

Charsadda is about 50km (30 miles) from the city. About 3,000 students are enrolled at Bacha Khan.

Wednesday’s attackers struck at around 09:30 local time (04:30 GMT), reportedly climbing over a back wall under cover of the thick winter fog.

Intense gunfire and explosions were heard as security guards fought the attackers.

“I personally heard two explosions,” an unidentified eyewitness told Pakistan’s Geo TV.

Taliban denial

A senior Taliban commander, Umar Mansoor, told media that the attack was in response to a military offensive against militant strongholds. He said four suicide attackers had carried out the attack.

However, the group’s main spokesman, Mohammad Khurasani, later told the BBC the Taliban had not been involved. He condemned the attack as “un-Islamic”.

An assistant professor at the university, Dr Shakoor, told the BBC he had turned back from the main gate of the campus after being told it was under attack.

Most of the students and members of the faculty would probably still not have arrived when the attack started, he said.

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