Yesterday morning, seven militants from the Pakistani Taliban entered a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, opening fire on the students with automatic weapons and detonating multiple explosive devices. The attack killed 132 children and nine staff members, and another 120 were injured. All of the gunmen were killed when the attack was brought to an end eight hours later by government forces. The Pakistani Taliban, claiming responsibility, said the assault on the children was in retaliation for attacks on their own families in North Waziristan, where the Pakistani Army has been carrying out an offensive against several militant groups. Gathered here are images of the immediate aftermath, as well as the school's interior, photographed a day later, and scores of families affected by this enormous tragedy.
After Pakistan Attack, 'the Smallest Coffins Are the Heaviest'
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Read moreAn injured Pakistani student who survived a Taliban attack on a school that killed more than 140 people, admitted to a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on December 16, 2014. Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing and wounding scores, officials said, in the highest-profile militant attack to hit the troubled region in months. #
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Read moreA Pakistani girl who was injured in a Taliban attack at a school is rushed to a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on December 16, 2014. #
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Read morePakistani rescue workers carry injured students from an ambulance after the attack at their school by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. #
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Read morePakistani volunteers carry a student injured in the shootout at a school in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. #
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Read moreA man in charge of a blood bank at a local hospital refuses people insisting to donate blood for victims of a Taliban attack on a school, in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. #
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Read moreA Pakistani man comforts a student standing at the bedside of a boy who was injured in the Taliban school attack, at a local hospital in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai issued a statement in response to the attack: "I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us. Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this." #
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Read moreRelatives of a victim of the attack mourn over her lifeless body at a hospital in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. #
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Read moreA policeman stands beside empty coffins stacked at the hospital after an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. #
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Read moreA Pakistani cameraman shoots video in front of a bullet-riddled wall at the army-run school a day after an attack by Taliban militants in Peshawar on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreA Pakistan army soldier inspects the Army Public School attacked the day before by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar on December 17, 2014. Pakistan mourned as the nation prepared for mass funerals Wednesday for over 140 people, most of them children, killed in the Taliban massacre. #
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Read morePakistani soldiers inspect inside the Army Public School attacked the day before, in Peshawar, on December 17, 2014. Debris from gun battles and bombs, blood, and scorched school supplies litter the hallways. #
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Read moreA group photograph of students of the Army Public School, photographed in the school principal's office in Peshawar the day after the attacks, on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreAn army soldier stands outside a burned-out office in the damaged Army Public School on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreBullet holes and shrapnel damage pockmark a wall inside the school a day after the attack by Taliban militants in Peshawar on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreA Pakistani video cameraman shoots video of the bloodied floor in the ceremony hall at the school a day after the attack, on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreA Pakistani cameraman films the bloodied floor in the ceremony hall at the school a day after the attack, on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreA girl's shoe lies on a bloody floor in the school's ceremony hall, a day after the attack by Taliban militants, on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreBurned books lie on the floor of the damaged Army Public School on December 17, 2014. The text visible in the book reads "Intercultural practice - taking it further" #
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Read moreA Pakistani army soldier walks past a bullet-riddled wall at the army-run school a day after the attack on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreA boy stands where people said Taliban gunmen burned a car to block a road outside the Army Public School, during the attack in Peshawar, on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreAn injured Pakistani student lies in bed at a hospital following the attack on December 16, 2014. #
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Read morePakistani mourners gather around a coffin during a funeral ceremony for victims of an attack by Taliban militants at an army-run school in Peshawar on December 17, 2014. #
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Read morePakistani Muslims offer prayers during a funeral ceremony a day after the attack in Peshawar, on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreMen carry the coffin of a student who was killed during the attack by Taliban gunmen, during a funeral in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. #
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Read moreWomen mourn their relative Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, a student who was killed in the attack, at his house in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. #
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Read moreIndian schoolchildren observe a two-minute silence for victims killed in the Taliban attack in Peshawar, in New Delhi, India, on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreNepalese youth group members hold placards before a candlelight vigil for the victims of Tuesday's Taliban attack in Peshawar, in Katmandu, Nepal, on December 17, 2014. #
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Read moreAn Indian child holds a candle during a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of Tuesday's Taliban attack in Peshawar, in New Delhi, India, on December 17, 2014. #
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