Pakistan will hold a national day of mourning on Thursday for the 21 people killed when armed gunmen attacked a university in the northwest of the country.

 

 

Flags will fly at half mast on all government buildings inside and outside the country, while a prayer ceremony will be held in the capital Islamabad. 

 

 

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed a "ruthless" response to the massacre and demanded security forces to hunt down those behind the attack on the Bacha Khan university in Charsadda, where students were targeted with grenades and automatic weapons. 

 

 

The assault showed a chilling resemblance to a 2014 massacre at a school in nearby Peshawar which shocked the country and prompted an esacalation of a national crackdown on extremism.

 

 

Among those who died in the recent attack was chemistry professor Syed Hamid Husain who was applauded for challenging the gunmen and firing at them with his pistol while his horrified students ran for cover. 

 

The majority of student victims died at a hostel for young men where security forces also corenered the four attackers. 

 

 

The majority of those victims were children, and their relatives held a candlelight vigil in Peshawar for those slain in the attack. 

 

 

The Bacha Khan attack, which Amnesty International said could be branded a war crime, earned global condemnation, including from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and from neighbouring India.

 

 

Sharif said in a statement “The entire nation is united and one against terrorism.”