Bloodshed at university stuns Pakistan

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CHARSADDA, Pakistan: 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 attack began shortly after classes started at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, a town 35 km outside Peshawar, said Deputy Commissioner Tahir Zafar. The school may have been targeted because it is named for a late secular icon.