After PM Narendra Modi's Appeal, 2-Minute Silence in Schools for Pakistan Victims

New Delhi: Schools all over the country are observing a two-minute silence and holding special prayers to remember the young victims of the ghastly terror attack on a Peshawar school in Pakistan on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who reached out to Pakistan in a phone conversation last night with its Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had appealed to all Indian schools to hold a two-minute silence as a mark of solidarity.

He joined Members of Parliament today in holding a two-minute silence in memory of the school children killed in the attack.

PM Modi called Mr Sharif at about 10.30 last night after the latter returned to Islamabad from Peshawar, and offered his "deepest condolences" and all assistance to Pakistan, saying the attack was a call to join hands against terror. (Read more)

The PM tweeted after his 12-minute conversation, "India stands firmly with Pakistan in fight against terror. Told PM Sharif we are ready to provide all assistance during this hour of grief."

Mr Modi told Mr Sharif that "the savage killing of innocent children, who are the epitome of the finest human values, in a temple of learning was not only an attack against Pakistan, but an assault against the entire humanity."

"This moment of shared pain and mourning is also a call for our two countries and all those who believe in humanity to join hands to decisively and comprehensively defeat terrorism, so that the children in Pakistan, India and elsewhere do not have to face a future darkened by the lengthening shadow of terrorism," the PM said.

On Tuesday, the Pakistani Taliban stormed an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 145 people, 132 of them children in school uniform. In eight hours of bloody terror, they lined up and shot dead young students, forced others to watch as they killed their teachers. (9 Gunmen, an 8-Hour Rampage and 132 Children Lost)

Mr Sharif had rushed to Peshawar. "I can't stay back in Islamabad. This is a national tragedy unleashed by savages. These were my kids," he said in a statement.

PM Modi had earlier on Tuesday condemned the attack as "a senseless act of unspeakable brutality."

Their conversation last night was the first since the two leaders had met at a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SAARC meeting in Nepal late last month.  

Amid tension after cross-border violence in Kashmir peaked recently to the worst in over a decade, PM Modi and Mr Sharif had cold-shouldered each other at the meeting and their cold vibes overshadowed the SAARC agenda.  

Later, at a mountain retreat for the eight leaders of SAARC nations, the two leaders shook hands and were seen talking during a photo-op.