Pakistan School Attack: What Do They Hope To Achieve?

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.
The Taliban massacre that killed 148 people — mostly children — at a military-run school in northwestern Pakistan left a scene of devastation and carnage as the nation mourned and mass funerals for the victims got underway Wednesday.

The attack at the Army Public School and College in the city of Peshawar on Tuesday was the deadliest slaughter of innocents in the country and horrified a nation already weary of unending terrorist assaults.

Blood was still pooled on the floor and the stairs as media were allowed inside the school a day after the attack. Torn notebooks, pieces of clothing and children's shoes were scattered about amid broken window glass, door frames and upturned chairs. A pair of child's eyeglasses lay broken on the ground.

The scene was horrifying. Gunmen stalked through the school, shooting children as they cowered under benches and booby-trapping buildings with homemade explosives.

When the siege finally ended, Pakistan was left reeling and the world wondering: Who would do such a thing? And what do they hope to achieve?

The attack began when seven Taliban gunmen, explosives strapped to their bodies, scaled a back wall using a ladder to get into the school on Tuesday morning. Once inside, they made their way into the main auditorium where many students had gathered for an event, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa told reporters during the tour Wednesday.

The militants then made their way to the hall's stage and started shooting at random. As students tried to flee for the doors, they were shot and killed. The military recovered about 100 bodies from the auditorium alone, Bajwa said.

The Pakistan Taliban are also against Western-style education for children and the employment of women. Most famously, their militants shot schoolgirl education activist Malala Yousafzai in the head in 2012 as she traveled on a school bus. She survived to receive a Nobel Peace Prize last week.

The school attacked Tuesday, which educates both boys and girls in separate classes, is the main school for the children of army personnel in Peshawar and employs both male and female teachers -- making it a desirable target for the terrorists.