UN chief condemns 'heinous' Pakistan school attack

UNITED NATIONS/LONDON - Reuters

Pakistani parents escort their children outside a school attacked by the Taliban in Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. AP Photo

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned a deadly Taliban attack on a Pakistan school on Tuesday as "an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenseless children while they learn."
   
"No cause can justify such brutality. No grievance can excuse such horror," Ban said. "Getting an education is every child's right. Going to school should not have to be an act of bravery."
   
At least 130 people, most of them children, were killed on Tuesday after Taliban gunmen broke into a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and opened fire, witnesses said, in the bloodiest massacre the country has seen for years. 

Malala 'heartbroken' by attack

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, joint winner of this year's Nobel peace prize for her education campaign work, said she was heartbroken by the news of the Taliban attack.
  
Malala, 17, was shot in the head on a school bus by the Taliban in 2012 and won global acclaim for her passionate advocacy of women's right to education.
   
"I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold-blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us," Malala, who  now lives in central England, said in a statement.
   
"Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this. I condemn these atrocious and cowardly acts and stand united with the government and armed forces of Pakistan whose efforts so far to address this horrific event are commendable."
   
"I, along with millions of others around the world, mourn these children, my brothers and sisters - but we will never be defeated," Malala said.