Taliban wound 15 girls in Pakistan college attack

Some of the victims were in a critical condition after the attack on the state-run girls-only institution in the town of Mardan, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of the regional capital Peshawar.

All the girls were aged 18 to 20, police said.

“Gunmen hurled two grenades and then opened fire with pistols. Fifteen girl students have been injured, some of them were in critical condition,” Khalid Nasim, a senior police officer in the town, told AFP.

“Taliban militants were involved in this attack, they were responsible,” he added.

An intelligence official in Peshawar said the attackers fled the scene afterwards.

There was no claim for the attack, but Islamists opposed to co-education and advocating sharia law have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years.