At least 9 students killed after burqa-clad Taliban terrorists attack college in Pakistan

At least nine students were reported killed and 37 people were injured as four terrorists from Tehreek-i-Taliban stormed the hostel of Peshawar's Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) on Friday morning, according to reports.

The number of casualties is expected to increase as a clearance operation is reportedly underway in the college.

The attackers exchanged fire with security forces at the Directorate of Agriculture Institute of Peshawar on Friday morning, the chief of police in the northwestern city, Tahir Khan said.

Police officers said that wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital. 

Khyber Teaching Hospital sources told The Dawn that they had received three bodies and 17 people with injuries.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said two soldiers were injured in the attack. They were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital for treatment.

The Pakistani Taliban quickly claimed the attack at the college, and its spokesperson Mohammad Khorasani released a message from the terrorist organisation stating that they had targeted a safe house of the military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Khan said that the gunmen arrived at the school campus in a rickshaw and disguised in the burqas, according to Reuters reports. A security guard was shot and gravely wounded in the attack.

In a similar attack, Pakistani Taliban gunmen, in December 2014, had killed 134 children at Peshawar's Army Public School. The Peshawar school attack was one of the single deadliest attacks in the country's history.

The Pakistani Taliban are fighting to topple the government and install an Islamic law in the country. They are loosely allied with the Afghan Taliban insurgents who ruled most of Afghanistan until they were overthrown by US-backed military action in 2001.