Taliban Islamists stormed Bacha Khan University near Peshawar yesterday and opened fire on students and teachers.
30 people were killed in the attack.
The Islamists scaled the wall and murdered 30 students and instructors.
Photos from #BachaKhan University after terrorist attack, operation is continue. #BachaKhanUniAttack pic.twitter.com/bBcbJimTyD
— Ubaid Awan (@UbaidAwan) January 20, 2016
But it could have been much worse.
Instructor Syed Hamid Husain saved dozens of lives by pulling a gun on the Islamists while students fled.
‘The Protector’: Chemistry lecturer Syed Hamid Husain (left) allowed his students to escape a Taliban massacre by opening fire on militants who attacked at the Bacha Khan university in Pakistan. Blood stains and flak jackets used by the attackers are seen in a dormitory (right) (Daily Mail)
Chemistry professor Syed Hamid Husain was killed in the Bacha Khan University attack — RIP pic.twitter.com/eKtUnVFW2C
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) January 20, 2016
TheDaily Mail reported on the hero teacher with a gun.
A chemistry lecturer known as ‘The Protector’ died saving his students by firing back at Taliban militants during a deadly attack on their university that left 30 dead and dozens injured today.
Gunmen stormed the Bacha Khan University in Pakistan in an assault that echoed a horrifying Taliban massacre on a nearby army-run school and previous attacks against girls’ education, notably the failed assassination attempt of Malala Yusufzai in 2012 in the same province.
It is also believed the school may have been targeted because it is named after Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a towering secular figure in Pakistani politics and ally of Mahatma Gandhi.
As militants stalked the campus, executing targets one by one, assistant chemistry professor Syed Hamid Husain, 32, ordered his pupils to stay inside as he confronted the attackers.
The father-of-two opened fire, giving them time to flee before he was cut down by gunfire as male and female students ran for their lives.
He was known to his pupils as ‘The Protector’ because he was a keen hunter and kept a 9mm pistol at school, possibly in light of previous militant attacks.
#WeWillRiseAgain
Chemistry lecturer Syed Hamid Husain embracd Shahadt fightng against militants
#BachaKhanUniversity pic.twitter.com/uL6E6soFcA
— ✨Parivash®✨ (@iamparivash) January 20, 2016
The AFP had more on the hero professor.
Lecturer Syed Hamid Hussain, an assistant professor of chemistry at the Bacha Khan university in Charsadda, ordered his students to stay inside as Taliban gunmen stormed the campus.
Students told of how he opened fire on gunmen as they rampaged across campus, giving the young people time to flee before he was cut down in a hail of bullets.
“We saw three terrorists shouting, ‘Allah is great!’ and rushing towards the stairs of our department,” one man told reporters.
“One student jumped out of the classroom through the window. We never saw him get up.”
He described seeing Hussain holding a pistol and firing at the attackers.
“Then we saw him fall down and as the terrorists entered the (registrar) office we ran away.”
Geology student Zahoor Ahmed said Husain had warned him not to leave the building after the first shots were fired.
“He was holding a pistol in his hand,” he said.
“Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall.”
“They fired directly at” the professor, sociology student Muhammad Daud told AFP, describing Hussain as “a real gentleman and a respectable teacher”.
Tributes were paid to the academic on Twitter.
Read more about Syed Hamid Husain :https://t.co/BWBhFUbbdb
#CharsaddaAttack #BachaKhanUniversity pic.twitter.com/pgjXMFRZos
— SAMAA TV (@SAMAATV) January 20, 2016
