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When we went over to the school grounds, we sensed a real calm, peace and spirit of thankfulness. From those who were present during the incident, there was a unanimous feeling that despite the death, injury and fear, God’s protection and providence were evident. Here are some reasons for that conclusion: The attack occurred just after the morning recess. Ten minutes before the attack, all the children and many of the staff had been outside milling about, shopping at the kiosk across the street, and playing around on the grounds inside the wall. As it was, everyone except one class activity was inside at the time. The dining hall was preparing for lunch, but there were no students or staff eating there at the time.
Most of the teachers upon hearing the initial shots thought they were fire crackers or construction work noise and did not sense any danger. The alarm was given after the terrorists were seen walking past the front door of the high school. While the attackers walked through the compound, they fired their automatic weapons many times through vehicles, windows and doors. Many locks show evidence of attempts to force them or shoot them open, but not one door gave way.
The elementary school has five classrooms. Each one had been very recently fitted with a new automatic lock, so that when the teachers gathered the children into small huddled groups, they didn’t have to manipulate a key to lock the doors. The gunmen did not see any of the children. They only came into one classroom-and it was the empty music room. The little children crouched down together, quietly, each with a hand on someone else’s back to comfort them. It took nearly two hours to make sure the grounds were safe, but they stayed quiet and calm. When we asked our 7-year-old, Michael, what he heard, he reproduced very clearly the sound of an automatic weapon firing.
One high school teacher, who had experienced much fighting and war during his years of service in Afghanistan, has been in Murree for more than three years. He did know what gunfire sounds like. He was sitting with the sixth grade class at a picnic table immediately facing the front gate. He recognized the initial gun shots fired outside the gate, and was able to help the children escape, behind the building, around the tennis courts and up the stairs into their classroom to safety without injury. The last child, while racing up the stairs, looked back and saw the gunmen passing their picnic table below.
An expatriate mother was walking up the steps towards the hostel when she heard shots. Her son called out to her from lower down, and she turned and started back down the stairs (unknowingly toward the gunmen). The terrorists ran across the tennis courts instead of using the sidewalk (where she was), and saw her running down the steps. They shot at her, and she felt the wind rush past her head and ears. As she reached up reflexively to block the bullets, she felt pain in her hand as one struck her wrist. By this time the upper level security guard came running towards the stairs, and perhaps distracted them so that she was able to escape and one of the men inside unlocked the high school door for her. That guard was shot and killed, and the receptionist who was coming back down towards the stairs after his tea break tried to help the guard, and was shot. He later died en route to the hospital.
Six or seven of the other staff around the campus, at the time of the attack, had been intending to walk outside their building to other areas on campus, but for various reasons were distracted or prevented. They all confess that this was God’s way of keeping them out of harm’s way.
Providentially for the maintenance supervisor, who was out in the open courtyard when the gunmen ran up the steps, the empty classroom in the grade school had been overlooked and not locked when the alarm was raised. This accidental oversight permitted him to run in there and hide in the bathroom. This saved his life. They chased him into the classroom, and ran over to the bathroom door and tried to kick it open. Because the attackers chased him, they did not open a door leading to the sports equipment closet and the music room where third and fourth graders were hiding.
When the terrorists arrived at the large hostel building they passed by the flimsy side door (which was open to the cafeteria) and tried to enter the main door. The boarding director was able to get to the door and lock it in time. Neither this wooden door nor its ancient lock are strong, but the invaders pushed, rattled, shot, and bashed them trying to get in, but could not. (That door opens by pulling outward, but they didn’t discover this fact.) God confused them, causing them to run around the back and over the fence into the woods. The back kitchen door had also been open, too, but they didn’t see it.
What they did see was the completely empty cafeteria, as well as several rooms on the ground floor draped with sheets and in disarray. Even the curtains had been removed from all the windows, because maintenance was installing ducts for a heating system throughout the building. It appears that the terrorists were confused when they did not find any children or teachers, and the building looked empty.
When the men ran around the building, they passed an empty room that was under construction. Formerly the dispensary was located there, but a few days before the furniture had been moved to an adjacent, windowless room, to permit renovation of the clinic. The school doctor and nurse were in that center room working with two of the seventh grade girls. Because of this, they were unseen and unhurt. Also because of the clinic renovation in progress, a previously sealed door had been opened to permit the adjacent guest room to be used as bed space for ill or injured patients. Because of that access, the doctor was able to get into that adjacent room and help two other men to safety through the other room’s door.
The children behaved wonderfully. All of them were perfectly cooperative. Many of them responded to the emergency by crouching down under desks and lab counters. Many of the high school students immediately began praying together, in many cases comforting each other, younger students, and their teachers. Despite rumors of peace and safety (due to quiet with no weapons firing noise), everyone kept down and quiet for almost two hours until the army gave the “all clear.”
Thirty-six hours after the event, the three perpetrators were seen in Azad (Free) Kashmir trying to cross the Jhelum River by suspension bridge. The police, recognizing they were not locals, tried to question them, but they ran, trying to cross the river another way. The villagers later surrounded them, so the three climbed on a large rock in the middle of the river. One of them declared that they had done the “Murree job,” and that if the police interfered they would kill the police, too.
When they saw there was no escape, they vowed they would never be caught and each one of them killed himself with a grenade. Upon detonation, their bodies fell into the current and were carried off. One body was immediately recovered and later positively identified by one of our school staff. No one knows for sure if they were Al Qaeda or Taliban. The school board has decided to close the school for one year. It is considering relocating to another country.
September 20, 2002