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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani army arrested five suspects on charges of facilitating a deadly militant attack on a university that killed 21, mostly students, in the country's northwest, an official said Saturday.
Islamic militants stormed Bacha Khan University in Charsadda on Jan. 20, killing students and teachers, and triggering a gunbattle that lasted for hours.
The five suspects allegedly provided the attackers with shelter, transport and weapons, said military spokesman Lt. Gen Asim Salim Bajwa.
Bajwa said another three suspects are still at large — a man and his wife and niece. The women are accused by buying weapons for the attackers from a weapons market in the tribal region of Dara Adam Khel, he said.
"The two women took advantage of the culture and used their veils to bring out the purchased weapons from the tribal region," said Bajwa.
He said the four attackers, all killed in clashes with security forces in the university, crossed through the Torkham border point from Afghanistan and that the attack appeared to be coordinated from inside Afghanistan. Once inside Pakistan, the attackers received 10 phone calls from individuals in Afghanistan. Bajwa also clarified that his government was not blaming the Afghan government.
A splinter faction of the Taliban, led by a man calling himself Khalifa Umar Mansoor, has claimed responsibility and has threatened similar attacks. However the main Taliban organization denied any involvement
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