CHARSADDA: Stuck with 15 of his students on a third floor balcony of a campus building as gunmen came up the stairs, university director Mohammad Shakil urged police personnel arriving at the scene to toss him a gun so he could fight back.

“We were hiding ... but were unarmed,” said Mr Shakil, narrating the events that unfolded on Wednesday when four militants attacked Bacha Khan University in Charsadda.

“I was worried about the students, and then one of the militants came after us,” he recalled. “After repeated requests, the police threw me a pistol and I fired some shots at the terrorists.”

As details of Wednesday’s assault emerged, attention focused on at least two members of staff who took up arms to resist the attackers.

Some hailed them as heroes, as the country digested an attack which bore similarities to the massacre, in late 2014, of 144 students at the Army Public School in Peshawar, about 30 kilometres from where the latest assault occurred.

Others questioned whether teachers should be armed, as many are, because it goes against the ideals of the profession.

Such a dilemma may have been far from the mind of chemistry professor Hamid Hussain, as he locked himself inside a room with colleagues after gunmen stormed an accommodation block on the campus.

When the assailants broke down the door, Hussain fired several rounds from his pistol, according to Shabbir Ahmad Khan, an English department lecturer taking cover in an adjacent washroom.

“They carried on heavy shooting and I was preparing myself for death, but then they left without entering the washroom,” Khan recalled.

Later, in the same building, Hussain fired again at the militants to allow some of his students to get away, survivors told media. Hussain was subsequently shot and later succumbed to his wounds.

Teachers’ dilemma

Others, too, have credited the teachers’ actions with helping to prevent the gunmen, armed with assault rifles and hand grenades, from spilling more blood.

In the wake of the 2014 school massacre, teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were offered weapons training. Yet some are wary of arming teachers and encouraging them to engage in battle.

Jamil Chitrali, president of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa University Teaching Staff Association, said more teachers were now carrying personal weapons as security had worsened.

“Arms are against the norms of my profession,” he said. “I am teaching principles and morality in class. How I can carry a gun?”

The varsity employed around 50 of its own guards who, witnesses said, fought for close to an hour to keep the gunmen isolated and prevent them from entering the girls’ hostel until the police and army personnel arrived.

Pakistan Army spokesman General Asim Bajwa said the security guards responded “very well” to the attack before reinforcements reached them.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2016