PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistanis mourned as mass funerals got underway Wednesday for 142 people, most of them children, killed the day before in a massacre by the Taliban at a military-run school in the country's troubled northwest. 
 
 Pakistani students head to their school in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. Pakistan is mourning as the nation prepares for mass funerals for 141 people, most of them children, killed in... (Associated Press) 
 
 Mourners and relatives of Pakistani teacher, Saeed Khan, a victim of a Taliban attack in a school, carry his body, during his funeral procession in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban... (Associated Press) 
 
 Relatives of Pakistani teacher, Saeed Khan, a victim of a Taliban attack in a school, gather around his body, during his funeral procession in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen... (Associated Press) 
 
 People look at lists of attack victims displayed at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban attack on a school that killed more than 100 people. Nobel Peace Prize winner... (Associated Press) 
 
 Pakistani journalists and civil society members hold a candle light vigil for the victims of a Taliban attack on a school, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run... (Associated Press) 
 
 People visit survivors of a Taliban attack on a school at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistani city... (Associated Press) 
 
 Pakistani blood donors wait their turn to donate blood for victims of a Taliban attack on a school, at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man comforts a child who survives a Taliban attack on a school that killed more than 100 people, admits at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run... (Associated Press) 
 
 Pakistan's army spokesman Major-General Asim Bajwa briefs the media about a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the... (Associated Press) 
 
 People who survived a Taliban attack on a school, receive treatment at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern... (Associated Press) 
 
 People who survived a Taliban attack on a school receive treatment at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistani... (Associated Press) 
 
 Mourners and relatives of Pakistani teacher, Saeed Khan, a victim of a Taliban attack in a school, pray around his body, during his funeral procession in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Taliban... (Associated Press) 
 
 A Pakistani injured student who survived a Taliban attack on a school that killed more than 100 people, admits at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Nobel Peace Prize winner... (Associated Press) 
 
 Prayer vigils were held across the nation and in other schools, students spoke of their shock at the carnage in the city of Peshawar, where seven Taliban gunmen, explosives strapped to their bodies, scaled a back wall using a ladder to get into the Army Public School and College in the morning hours on Tuesday. 
 
 Students were gunned down and some of the female teachers were burned alive. The attack was the deadliest slaughter of innocents in the country and horrified a nation already weary of unending terrorist assaults. Army commandos fought the Taliban in a day-long battle until the school was cleared and the attackers dead. 
 
 The government declared a three-day mourning period, starting Wednesday. Overnight, the body of the school principal, Tahira Qazi, was found among the debris from the rampage. Her death raised further the earlier reported death toll of 141. 
 
 Some of the funerals were held overnight, but most of the 132 children and 10 school staff members killed in the attack were to be buried Wednesday. Another 121 students and three staff members were wounded. 
 
 "They finished in minutes what I had lived my whole life for, my son," said laborer Akhtar Hussain, tears streaming down his face as he buried his 14-year-old, Fahad. He said he had worked for years in Dubai to earn a livelihood for his children. 
 
 "That innocent one is now gone in the grave, and I can't wait to join him, I can't live anymore," he wailed, banging his fists against his head. 
 
 The Taliban said the attack was revenge for a military offensive against their safe havens in the northwest, along the border with Afghanistan, which began in June. Analysts said the school siege showed that even diminished, the militant group still could inflict horrific carnage. 
 
 The attack drew swift condemnation from around the world. President Barack Obama said the "terrorists have once again showed their depravity." 
 
 Pakistan's teenage Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai — herself a survivor of a Taliban shooting — said she was "heartbroken" by the bloodshed. 
 
 Even Taliban militants in neighboring Afghanistan decried the killing spree, calling it "un-Islamic." 
 
 Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to step up the campaign that — along with U.S. drone strikes — has targeted the militants. 
 
 "We will take account of each and every drop of our children's blood," said Sharif, who rushed to Peshawar shortly after the attack to offer support for the victims. 
 
 In neighboring India, which has long accused Pakistan of supporting anti-India guerrillas, schools on Wednesday observed two minutes of silence for the Peshawar victims at the urging of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called the attack "a senseless act of unspeakable brutality." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Peshawar, Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Tim Sullivan in New Delhi contributed to this report. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Mishal Husain was one of the first broadcasters to go inside the school 
 
 The Pakistani city of Peshawar is burying its dead after a Taliban attack at a school killed at least 132 children and nine staff. 
 
 New images from the school show the brutality of the attack, with pools of blood on the ground and walls covered in pockmarks from hundreds of bullets. 
 
 Mass funerals and prayer vigils for the victims are currently under way. 
 
 Gunmen had walked from class to class shooting students in the Pakistani Taliban's deadliest attack to date. 
 
 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared three days of mourning over the massacre, which has sparked national outrage. 
 
 He also announced an end to the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases, which correspondents say is a move aimed at countering a view held by many Pakistanis that many terror suspects end up evading justice. 
 
 World leaders have also voiced disgust at the attack, which even the Afghan Taliban have criticised. 
 
 Image caption Images taken by a BBC team inside a classroom show the level of destruction 
 
 Image caption An office belonging the school principal was hit by a suicide bomber 
 
 Separately, Pakistan's army says it launched air strikes at militants in the Khyber and North Waziristan areas, although it is not yet clear if this was a direct response to the school attack. An offensive against the militants has been going on since June. 
 
 At the scene: Mishal Husain, BBC News 
 
 It is a very eerie atmosphere. These are premises that should be alive at a time of day like this to the sound of hundreds of children who studied here and began school as normal on Tuesday. But it is desolate now. 
 
 The army has been working through the night to clear the premises of explosives. 
 
 I am standing now at the bottom of the white stone steps that lead up to the auditorium. There are blood stains running right down the steps and towards the auditorium itself. 
 
 There is a child's shoe on one of the steps. The auditorium, where children were taking exams, was one of the places within the school grounds that the militants first targeted. 
 
 As I peer in now, the chairs that the children were sitting on are upturned, the place has been turned upside down and again I can see the blood stains on the floor right around me. 
 
 Mr Sharif also convened a meeting of all parliamentary parties in Peshawar to discuss the response. 
 
 Afghan role 
 
 Meanwhile, Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif is in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on a surprise visit to discuss security co-operation aimed at tackling the Taliban insurgency. 
 
 Pakistani Taliban (TTP) leader Mullah Fazlullah is believed by the Pakistani authorities to be hiding in Afghanistan and media reports in Pakistan suggest the school attack may have been co-ordinated from Afghanistan. 
 
 But the TTP said the attack had been masterminded by its military chief in the Peshawar region, who it said had been in touch with the gunmen throughout the assault. 
 
 A TTP spokesman told the BBC they had deliberately killed older pupils and not targeted "small children". 
 
 BBC correspondents say the Taliban statement is being seen as damage limitation after the attack was universally condemned in Pakistan for its brutality. 
 
 The TTP also repeated its earlier claim that only six attackers were sent, contradicting official accounts that seven gunmen were killed. The militants say the attack was revenge for the army's campaign against them, and that they chose the school as a target because their families had also suffered heavy losses. 
 
 Scenes of devastation 
 
 Reporters visiting the school for the first time saw pools of blood marking the floor and torn notebooks, clothing and shoes among the debris. 
 
 "This is not a human act,'' military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said during a tour of the school, the Associated Press reports. "This is a national tragedy." 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Upturned chairs and blood stains left in the wake of the attack at the school's auditorium 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Funerals for the victims began hours after the attack on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Many schools in Pakistan closed as a mark of respect, with those remaining open holding special prayers 
 
 Seven Taliban attackers wearing bomb vests cut through a wire fence to gain entry to the school, before launching an attack on an auditorium where children were taking an exam. 
 
 Gunmen then went from room to room at the military-run school, shooting pupils and teachers where they found them in a siege that lasted eight hours, survivors say. 
 
 A total of 125 people were wounded at Peshawar's Army Public School, which teaches boys and girls from both military and civilian backgrounds. All seven attackers were killed, while hundreds of people were evacuated. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Some wounded students remain at the main hospital in Peshawar 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Soldiers are guarding the gates of the school in Peshawar after the siege 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption There was anger at this candlelit vigil for the victims in Karachi, Pakistan 
 
 Mohammad Hilal, a student in the 10th grade, was shot three times in his arm and legs when the gunmen stormed the school auditorium. 
 
 "I think I passed out for a while. I thought I was dreaming. I wanted to move but felt paralysed. Then I came to and realised that actually two other boys had fallen on me. Both of them were dead," he told the BBC. 
 
 Zulfiqar Ahmad, 45, the head of the mathematics department who was shot four times during the attack told the BBC he did not believe any of the 18 students in his class had survived. 
 
 The victims are also being mourned elsewhere, with India's parliament observing a minute's silence in their honour. 
 
 India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his country's "deepest condolences". 
 
 Mr Sharif pledged to avenge a "national tragedy unleashed by savages". 
 
 Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban for championing girls' rights to education, also condemned "these atrocious and cowardly acts". 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption School pupil Mohammad Baqair lost his mother, a teacher, in the attack 
 
 Pakistani embassies worldwide have lowered their flags to half-mast and opened books of condolences. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Some of the injured were carried to hospital in people's arms 
 
 Deadly attacks in Pakistan 
 
 Image copyright AFP 
 
 16 December 2014: Taliban attack on school in Peshawar leaves at least 141 people dead, 132 of them children 
 
 22 September 2013: Militants linked to the Taliban kill at least 80 people at a church in Peshawar, in one of the worst attacks on Christians 
 
 10 January 2013: Militant bombers target the Hazara Shia Muslim minority in the city of Quetta, killing 120 at a snooker hall and on a street 
 
 28 May 2010: Gunmen attack two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in Lahore, killing more than 80 people 
 
 18 October 2007: Twin bomb attack at a rally for Benazir Bhutto in Karachi leaves at least 130 dead. Unclear if Taliban behind attack 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Taliban has a history of targeting large crowds of civilians in Pakistan 
 
 In Afghanistan itself, the local Taliban described the school attack as un-Islamic and said they were sending condolences to the families of the victims. 
 
 The Afghan Taliban are currently stepping up their own attacks in Afghanistan and share roots with the Pakistani Taliban and usually share the same ideology too, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports from Kabul. 
 
 Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in the recent Pakistan army offensive in the Khyber area and North Waziristan, regions close to the Afghan border. ||||| Story highlights Children "are dying on the frontline in the war against terror," Pakistan's defense minister says 
 
 The death toll has climbed to 145 people, included 132 children and the school's principal 
 
 Attackers gunned down students taking an exam in an auditorium, military spokesman says 
 
 Attack was on a school mostly for soldiers' children; many of the dead between 12 and 16 
 
 "'God is great,'" the Taliban militants shouted as they roared through the hallways of a school in Peshawar, Pakistan. 
 
 Then, 14-year-old student Ahmed Faraz recalled, one of them took a harsher tone. 
 
 " 'A lot of the children are under the benches,' " a Pakistani Taliban said, according to Ahmed. " 'Kill them.' " 
 
 By the time the hours-long siege at Army Public School and Degree College ended early Tuesday evening, at least 145 people -- 132 children, 10 school staff members and three soldiers -- were dead, military spokesman Gen. Asim Bajwa said. More than 100 were injured, many with gunshot wounds, according to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani. 
 
 The death toll does not include the terrorists who attacked the school, bursting into an auditorium where a large number of students were taking an exam and gunning down many of them within minutes, Bajwa said. 
 
 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Soldiers patrol the streets in Peshawar, Pakistan, near a school that was attacked by the Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday, December 16. Militants stormed the military-run school in northwest Pakistan, killing more than 140 people, most of them children. More than 100 people were injured. Hide Caption 1 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Relatives carry the body of a victim during his funeral procession. Hide Caption 2 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A victim's coffin is carried from an ambulance. Hide Caption 3 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – The uncle and cousin of injured student Mohammad Baqair comfort him as he mourns the death of his mother, a teacher who was killed in the attack. Hide Caption 4 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A man comforts a student who survived the attack. Hide Caption 5 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Parents escort their children away from the school. Hide Caption 6 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A wounded student receives treatment at a Peshawar hospital. Hide Caption 7 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Pakistani soldiers hold positions close to the school. All the militants in the attack were eventually killed, a police official said. Hide Caption 8 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Pakistani soldiers take position near the site of the attack. Hide Caption 9 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A student is wheeled into a hospital in Peshawar. Hide Caption 10 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A man and woman rush to a Peshawar hospital treating victims of the attack. Hide Caption 11 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Family members wait outside the school. Hide Caption 12 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – People gather at a hospital where victims were being treated. Hide Caption 13 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Pakistani soldiers position themselves at a fence near the besieged school. Hide Caption 14 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A Pakistani soldier clears the area outside the school. Hide Caption 15 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – An injured student lies in bed at a Peshawar hospital after the attack. Hide Caption 16 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A hospital security guard helps an injured student at the school. Hide Caption 17 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Parents leave with their children near the site of the attack. Hide Caption 18 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A plainclothes officer escorts rescued students away from the school. Hide Caption 19 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Pakistani troops reach the site of the attack. Hide Caption 20 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Volunteers carry a student at a hospital in Peshawar. Hide Caption 21 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – An injured girl gets rushed to a hospital in Peshawar. Hide Caption 22 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A man comforts a student standing at the bedside of an injured boy. Hide Caption 23 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – A Pakistani soldier takes position on a bunker close to the besieged school. Hide Caption 24 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Relatives of a student killed in the attack mourn over the student's body. Hide Caption 25 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – Hospital staff transport an injured student in Peshawar. Hide Caption 26 of 27 Photos: Photos: Taliban attack Pakistani school Taliban attack Pakistani school – The body of a victim lies at a hospital in Peshawar. Hide Caption 27 of 27 
 
 Map: Peshawar, Pakistan 
 
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 "They started shooting indiscriminately," Bajwa said, "and that's where maximum damage was caused." 
 
 Pakistani Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khurrassani said the militants scaled the school's walls around 10 a.m. (midnight ET), intent on killing older students there. 
 
 The Taliban had "300 to 400 people ... under their custody" at one point, said Khurrassani, whose group is called Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. But Bajwa said there was no hostage situation, as the attackers' focus was shooting to kill rather than taking captives. 
 
 They were eventually met by Pakistani troops who pushed through the complex building by building, room by room. By 4 p.m., they'd confined the attackers to four buildings. A few hours later, all the militants -- seven of them, according to Bajwa -- were dead. 
 
 Pakistani authorities spent Tuesday night inside the school in Peshawar, a city about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the country's capital, Islamabad, looking for survivors, victims and improvised explosive devices planted to worsen the carnage. 
 
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 As they searched, they discovered that the school's principal was among the terrorists' victims. 
 
 The attack drew sharp condemnation from top Pakistani officials, who vowed that the country wouldn't stop its war against the Taliban. 
 
 "We are undeterred. ... We will not back off," Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told CNN. 
 
 But he said the ambush at the school is another example of how great his nation's sacrifices have been in fighting that's raged for more than a decade. 
 
 "Even the children are dying on the frontline in the war against terror," he said. "The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to carry. ... It's a very, very tragic day." 
 
 Minister: Most of the dead were 12 to 16 years old 
 
 On a typical day, the Army Public School and Degree College is home to about 1,100 students and staff, most of them sons and daughters of army personnel from around Peshawar, though others attend as well. 
 
 Their nightmare began in late morning, when a car exploded behind the school. Pakistani education minister Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman explained to CNN that the blast was a ruse, meant to divert the attention of the school's security guards. 
 
 It worked. 
 
 Gunmen got over the walls and walked through where students in grades 8, 9 and 10 have classes and fired randomly, said Dr. Aamir Bilal of Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, citing students. They came in with enough ammunition and other supplies to last for days and were not expecting to come out alive, according to a Pakistani military official. 
 
 Seventh-grader Mohammad Bilal said he was sitting outside his classroom taking a math test when the gunfire erupted. He fell into bushes before running to the school's gates to safety. 
 
 Ahmed, the 14-year-old student, remembered being in the school's auditorium when four or five people burst in through a back door "and started rapidly firing." After getting shot in his left shoulder, the ninth-grader lay under a bench. 
 
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 "My shoulder was peeking out of the bench, and somebody was following," Ahmed recalled. "They went into another room, (and when) I ran to the exit, I fell." 
 
 Bajwa told reporters that Pakistani security forces reached the school 15 minutes after the attack began. 
 
 They found, he said, "the children ... drenched in blood, with their bodies on top of each other." 
 
 Most of those killed were between the ages of 12 and 16, said Pervez Khattak, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital. But some adults in the school also were targets, like a 28-year-old office assistant who was shot and then burned alive, police official Faisal Shehzad said. 
 
 Violent past 
 
 Pakistan has seen plenty of violence, much of it involving militants based in provinces such as South Waziristan, North Waziristan and the Khyber Agency -- all restive regions in northwest Pakistan near Peshawar along its border with Afghanistan. 
 
 It is the home base of the TTP, an organization that has sought to force its conservative version of Islam in Pakistan. The group has battled Pakistani troops and, on a number of occasions, attacked civilians as well. 
 
 Peshawar, an ancient city of more than 3 million people tucked right up against the Khyber Pass, has often found itself in the center of it all. Militants repeatedly targeted the city in response to Pakistani military offensives, like a 2009 truck bombing of a popular marketplace frequented by women and children that killed more than 100 people. 
 
 And the Taliban hasn't hesitated to go after schoolchildren. Their most notable target is Malala Yousafzai, who was singled out and shot on October 9, 2012 as she rode to school in a van with other girls. The teenage girl survived and, last week, became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote education and girls' rights in Pakistan and beyond. 
 
 Yousafzai was "heartbroken by this (latest) senseless and cold blooded act of terror in Peshawar," saying Tuesday that "innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this." 
 
 "I call upon the international community, leaders in Pakistan, all political parties -- everyone -- (to) stand up together and fight against terrorism," the 16-year-old added in another statement. "And we should make sure that every child gets a safe and quality education." 
 
 Taliban: Revenge for killing of tribesmen 
 
 Still, even by Pakistan and the Taliban's gruesome standards, Tuesday's attack may be the most abominable yet. 
 
 This is the deadliest incident inside Pakistan since October 2007, when about 139 Pakistanis died and more than 250 others were wounded in an attack near a procession for exiled former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database 
 
 Even the Taliban in Afghanistan, with which the TTP is closely affiliated, criticized the "deliberate killing of innocent people, women and children (as being) against Islamic principles" and expressed condolences to the attack's victims, according to spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. 
 
 It comes after peace talks between the Pakistan Taliban and Pakistan's government as recently as last spring. The government released 19 Taliban noncombatants in a goodwill gesture, in fact. 
 
 But talks broke down under a wave of attacks by the Taliban and mounting political pressure to bring the violence under control. 
 
 In September 2013, choir members and children attending Sunday school were among 81 people killed in a suicide bombing at the Protestant All Saints Church of Pakistan. A splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility, blaming the U.S. program of drone strikes in tribal areas of the country. 
 
 And for the past few months, the Pakistani military has been conducting a ground offensive to clear out militants, spurring violence that's displaced tens of thousands of people and sparked deadly retaliations. 
 
 Khurrassani, the Pakistan Taliban spokesman, told CNN that the latest attack was revenge for the killing of hundreds of innocent tribesmen during repeated army operations in provinces including South Waziristan, North Waziristan and the Khyber Agency. 
 
 The TTP spokesman challenged that ordinary citizens were targeted, saying that five army vehicles are routinely stationed at the school. 
 
 "We are facing such heavy nights in routine," Khurrassani said, rationalizing the siege shortly before it ended. "Today, you must face the heavy night." ||||| LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan has decided to launch a paramilitary crackdown on Islamist militants in Punjab, the country’s richest and most populous province, after an Easter Day bombing killed 70 people in the provincial capital Lahore, officials said on Monday. 
 
 Sunday’s suicide bombing at a public park was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban’s Jamaat-ur-Ahrar faction, which once declared loyalty to Islamic State. The group said it was targeting Christians. 
 
 The brutality of the attack, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar’s fifth bombing since December, reflects the movement’s attempts to raise its profile among Pakistan’s increasingly fractured Islamist militants. 
 
 At least 29 children enjoying an Easter weekend outing were among those killed when the suicide bomber struck in a busy park in the eastern city of Lahore, the power base of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan is a majority-Muslim state but has a Christian population of more than two million. 
 
 Pope Francis condemned the attack as “hideous” and demanded that Pakistani authorities protect religious minorities. 
 
 It was Pakistan’s deadliest attack since the December 2014 massacre of 134 school children at a military-run academy in the city of Peshawar that prompted a government crackdown on Islamist militancy. 
 
 Security and government officials told Reuters the decision had been made to launch a full-scale operation involving the paramilitary Rangers, who would have powers to conduct raids and interrogate suspects in the same way as they have been doing in the southern city of Karachi for more than two years. 
 
 The move, which has not yet been formally announced, represents the civilian government once again granting special powers to the military to fight Islamist militants. 
 
 “The technicalities are yet to be worked out. There are some legal issues also with bringing in Rangers, but the military and government are on the same page,” said one senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to share details of the plan. 
 
 One other military official and two government officials confirmed the decision on condition of anonymity. 
 
 “The PM ordered a joint operation of ‎the counter-terrorism department and Rangers in the border areas of Punjab against terrorists and their facilitators,” said one government official who attended a meeting with Sharif and Punjab officials on Monday. 
 
 The move is likely to be controversial in Punjab. In Karachi, the Rangers’ crackdown has drawn accusations of human rights abuses and the targeting of opposition politicians, though the rate of militant and criminal violence has dropped sharply since the paramilitary force arrived. 
 
 Sharif’s own party has long opposed any militarized operation against militants in its Punjab heartland. 
 
 Family members mourn as they gather near the body of a relative, who was killed in a blast outside a public park on Sunday, during funeral in Lahore, Pakistan, March 28, 2016. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza 
 
 “FAILURE IS THEIR FATE” 
 
 Military spokesman Gen. Asim Bajwa said intelligence agencies, the army and Rangers had already launched several raids around Punjab following the attack, arresting an unspecified number of suspects and recovering arms caches. 
 
 Sharif visited the wounded in hospitals and described the attackers as a “coward enemy trying for soft targets”. 
 
 “Terrorists should know that failure is their fate,” he said in a television address to the nation, vowing to crush them. 
 
 Claiming responsibility on Sunday for the attack on behalf of Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan issued a direct challenge to the government: “We want to send this message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that we have entered Lahore.” 
 
 Rescue services spokeswoman Deeba Shahnaz said at least 29 children, seven women and 34 men had been killed and about 340 people wounded, with 25 in serious condition. 
 
 Jamaat-ur-Ahrar has claimed responsibility for several big attacks since it split from the main Pakistani Taliban in 2014. [L3N17026B] 
 
 While it mostly focuses attacks in its base of the northwestern Mohmand tribal area, it has previously carried out at least two major attacks in Lahore: one in 2015 that targeted two Christian churches and another at the Wagah border between India and Pakistan in late 2014. 
 
 Pakistan has been plagued by militant violence since it joined a U.S.-led campaign against Islamist militancy after the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States. 
 
 Slideshow (9 Images) 
 
 While the army, police, government and Western interests have been the prime targets of the Pakistani Taliban and their allies, Christians and other religious minorities have also been attacked. 
 
 Security forces have killed and arrested hundreds of suspected militants under an earlier crackdown launched after the 2014 Peshawar school massacre. Militant violence eased, but groups retain the ability to launch devastating attacks. 
 
 Most militants, like the Pakistani Taliban, want to topple the government and introduce a strict version of Islamic law.
– "We will take revenge for each and every drop of our children's blood," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed as funerals began for 132 children slaughtered in a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar yesterday. Sharif said there would be three days of national mourning for the massacre at a military-run school, in which 10 staff members were killed, as well as all seven attackers, the BBC reports. Sharif also said he would reinstate the death penalty for terrorism. More: The attack was condemned worldwide, with Pakistan's archrival India, whose president called the attack "a senseless act of unspeakable brutality," observing two minutes of silence in schools, reports the AP. Even the Taliban in Afghanistan spoke out against the atrocity, calling it "un-Islamic." There are signs that the attackers—some of whom reportedly spoke in Arabic to each other—had intended to stay for a long siege, with some of them carrying stores of food, the New York Times reports. A security official, however, says they never attempted to take any hostages. "They were there to kill, and this is what they did," he says. One official tells the Guardian that the attackers accessed the school via an unguarded back wall. They may have parked their vehicle next to it and then just climbed on the roof of the vehicle and over the wall. A Pakistani Taliban spokesman says the attack was revenge for a military offensive against the militants in areas including North Waziristan, where he says hundreds of innocent people have been killed. The country's defense minister tells CNN that the country will not back off from the offensive, but that the slaughter is another example of the sacrifices Pakistan has made in its battle against the militants. "The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to carry," he says. "It's a very, very tragic day."