Militants kill 20 in assault on Pakistani university

CHARSADDA, Pakistan — Islamic militants stormed a university in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and triggering an hours-long gunbattle with security forces in an attack that echoed a horrifying assault by the Taliban a little over a year ago on a nearby army-run school.

The attackers climbed over the back walls of the university and shot at a security guard before making their way to the administration building and the male students’ dorms, police official Saeed Khan Wazir said.

Television footage showed a heavy military presence at the university, with soldiers rushing in and people fleeing.

The attack revived painful memories of the Taliban assault on an army-run school in December 2014, in which gunmen killed around 150 people, nearly all of them children.

The conflicting accounts reflect growing divisions among the various Taliban factions that operate along the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which have been in increasing disarray as U.S. drone strikes have eliminated top commanders in recent years.