♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello and welcome to the news hour, live from doha, i have the top stories on al jazeera, taliban gunman attacking a school in pakistan, dozens of students and teachers have been killed. australia remembers prime minister tony abbot and leads mourn ers die in the siege. >> there are people even in a society such as ours who wish to do us harm.

>> reporter: and moscow pushes interest rates to 17% trying to save the plunging russian rubel. taliban gunman attacking a school in pakistan, 84 people have been killed so far. 81 of them are children. at least another 100 injured. while the school is in the northwest city of peshawar the prime minister is on his way there and he says it's a national tragedy. nicole johnston has the latest. >> reporter: a few months since they launched an attack like this, six armed men stormed a school in peshawar where exams were underway and the gunman started firing. >> translator: the firing started suddenly. we ran to our classes. there were 6-7 attackers and

they were entering the classrooms and shooting students one by one. >> reporter: the army public school is one by the military and has around 500 students and teachers, a spokesman for the pakistani taliban said suicide bombers have entered the school, have instructions not to harm the children but target army personnel and he explained the attack has been launched in revenge for the military's operation in north warzistan and started six months ago and want to defeat the taliban in the mountain region and says it killed more than 1800 fighters, destroyed camps and stores. the campaign has forced around 700,000 people to leave their homes and staying in camps and renting appointments until the war is over. the last major operation by the pakistan taliban is the karachi attack in june, 36 people killed including ten militants, however

targeting a school is unlikely to win the group much public support, must people becon the campaign against them and tried to stay united and split on tribal lines and the branch said it has given up violence, clearly members of the wider organization have not, nicole johnston al jazeera. and we are joined on the phone and he is traveling to peshawar from islamabad and what do you hear of the situation in peshawar and it still seems to be going on. >> indeed, it is what we received from one of our contacts not far away from the location, at least three of those attackers have been killed and three of them are still at large, fighting is still continuing between the security forces and those people who entered the compound and it is there forth feared that perhaps

the death toll will go even higher. it's of course a high one and it appears with the school children. >> reporter: for for the update and updating us on the situation of the school under attack in peshawar and let's speak to a military analyst and a retired general and is joining us from islamabad. so an incredibly high death toll from what we know so far, 84 people, most of them children, what can you tell us about how the pakistani taliban is able to carry out such a large and brazen attack on a school? >> well, i think what has happened is that the difficulty is for them to sort of penetrate so i think they have chosen a soft target and this will create a huge psychological impact and this is exactly what they wanted to do to demorelize the people

and parents and everyone so they go against the military campaign but it's going to be just the opposite. i think it will make the people have a much greater resolve and determination and you will see that the new army star general shariff will go all out against the militants and i think this has been a very wrong sort of policy on their part to have killed innocent civilians and even those people who are somewhat hesitant and the political power which is power, the place where this incident took place, they have been somewhat dilley dallying about the support to the military, now i think they will have no option so in that sense i think it will make the nation far more resolved and determined to take these people on. >> what the taliban is saying in a statement is they attacked a

military run school killing 84 students what we know so far because they wanted revenge for what the pakistani military is doing to their own families in the north warzistan areas. >> well, i think this is not fair because you know when this operation started the army announced and there were complete evacuation from the areas and say if anyone stays there it will only be the militants because we want to flush the area out of militants and it's only they are targeting the militants and are very particular about that because obviously you know the army and the country and the nation knows they would not like to kill any innocent people, it's these people that thought you know by doing so they would be more like the country and demoralize people and do not have hard

targets and cannot penetrate them so i think they took this easy option which i think is really shows the character of these people and it could well be a game changer because i have a feeling that this will really mobilize the support of the people as well as of the political parties much more and will also make them focus on the real. >> it has to be asked why the military is unable to protect the exact same school attacked right now with at least 84 people being killed and it's on school from the taliban, why can it not protect it? >> well, you are right. but you know it is simply impossible to protect all schools that is the problem. the problem is you have to have an overall security situation where they are not able to act and you have to have an intelligence which is very good and support of the people. what is happening is that the military they are thinking they will probably attack the hard targets and focusing on the hard

targets and likely ones and it seems that they are realizing that that was not possible and this will have a huge psychological impact and a high-profile target if they went for this. but, in fact, it will although it has been a great loss and it will be so tragic in so many ways and it could never be forgotten because you know how can the parents live with all this, but i think the effect of this would be a game changer and probably the whole country will go after them with much greater resolve. >> but are you calling into question the security and the intelligence in pakistan? this is clearly some sort of failure on a big scale. >> well, i would say as far as intelligence is concerned i'm sure that there is a failure because they should have known if such a massive attack takes place and don't know anything about it or is it that they just

want through the intelligence communication but the people who are responsible for the security didn't act so we will have to see, i think there will be a lot of questions that will have to be answered. >> all right, thank you very much for joining us from islamabad. >> thank you. >> the australian prime minister tony abbot has national mourning following the 17-year-old deaths in sidney, three people including the gunman were killed in the standoff, the hostage taker is identified as an i ran yanukovich refugee and his actions have been described by tony abbot as being politically motivated. >> the tragedy of these times is that there are people even in a society such as ours who wish to do us harm. we are not immune to the politically motivated violence which has for so long stalked

other countries. but over the last 36 hours we have responded to this in character with stoism and i'm absolutely confident that whatever happens in the days and weeks and months to come australia will always be a free and open and a generous society and we have seen in just the last day or so australians opening their hearts to members of all the different communities which makeup this rich and multi cultural city. >> reporter: mourners have gathered to pay their respects. people started to lay flowers first thing on tuesday morning australian time and you can see now how it has become a real carpet in the middle here, the cafe where the serj happened and

further up the square, a big crowd and lots of media and lots of sidney people here desperately upset for what unfolded and feels that sidney lost their innocence. i just met emma and you have just come down and felt the need to be here to see the flowers and sign the book, why did you come down? >> it has been a sad day for sidney. and i'm the same age as her and i have one child and this is very difficult and i think the saddest think about all of this is the beautiful muslim community and how that's going to affect them and today is a sad day. >> reporter: i have heard that a lot, people are concerned of backlash and determined it won't happen, do you have confidence that won't happen? >> i really do. i just think that this world is

divided enough and things like this and i know i do take a bit of comfort in thinking this was a lone operator and that has given me a lot of comfort to think he is gone now and we can all move forward in an interactive way. >> reporter: talk very much. the real feeling here is that sidney changed overnight monday into tuesday and it will never quite be the same again. israeli forces have shot dead a 21-year-old palestinian in a columbia refugee camp and has been identified and they raided the forces on the occupied west bank and confrontations broke out between police and the youth there and we are joined from west jerusalem to tell us more about the operation and the death of the palestinian man. >> that's right, what we understand is around 3:00 a.m.

local time a group of israeli soldiers entered the refugee camp, from what we understand they were there in order to make an arrest. they say that while they were there some sort of explosive device was thrown in their direction and that's when they opened fire. they also say they opened fire as part of crowd disbursel means and whatever the case as you rightly point out a 21-year-old palestinian man was shot in the head when israeli forces open fire and declared dead at a nearby hospital and understand another palestinian man a 26-year-old has been taken in israeli custody and we understand that he too is suffering from a gunshot wound. >> thank you and we are reporting from west jerusalem. the palestinian abbas is to put forward a resolution at the u.n. security council calling for

withdraw of israeli troops from occupied west bank from 2016 and well as creation of a palestinian state of 1967 borders, a day after the israeli prime minister called on u.s. secretary of state to block efforts on palestinian statehoods and jordan is reportedly to be circulating that palestinian-drafted resolution to the 15-member security council. let's meet a palestinian american political analyst joining us from there and thanks for being with us on al jazeera, according to some of the reports the americans will convince the palestinians not to go to u.n. security council or at least not to go on wednesday and delay that step, how likely is that to happen? >> it actually would be rather laughable if it wasn't so tragic and people were dying in the streets of palestine and israel. the delay of yet another round of a palestinian action to try

to gain our freedom and independence is not going to work this time. after 20 years of negotiating with israel, only to find that we are losing more and more land and more and more people, i think the palestinian leadership is in a corner and has nothing to do except take actions on what the international community mainly the u.s. has been talking about for the last four decades which is the creation of two states on the 1967 borders. >> telling palestinians not to go and palestinian may listen to what the americans have to say as they have done many times in the past. >> reporter: i think many times has led us to a situation where today the situation is falling out of control and people are actually dying because of a further delay on the diplomatic front. it is pastime that the palestinians start to take actions even if it is out of sync with united states and sadly and i speak as an american as well that what the

palestinians are asking for is exactly u.s. policy, establishment of a palestinian state in the west bank, east jerusalem and gaza strip and that is the will of the international community and the time has come for international community led by the u.s. to start taking actions and walk the walk. >> let's say that it actually goes through, will the americans veto it? >> i would hope not. i mean, there is a possibility they may abstain this time because they see very clearly now especially after secretary of state kerry failed after nine months to end the conflict and they may abstain but there is not another resolution on the books, we already have 80 plus of those and we need the resolutions to have teeth and those teeth are being seen in the european union and south america where countries are actually starting to hold israel accountable for this prolonged illegal military occupation. the u.s. will be the last to

come around to this given that they are a strategic ally of israel but i'm not surprised. >> all right thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> you're with the al jazeera news hour and there is much more to come including french police arrest several people for recruiting young muslims to fight in syria and iraq plus. >> i'm in central jaba where a complete village was wiped out by a landslide. coming up, in sport ice hockey biggest star is the latest to be struck down by the outbreak of the mumps, all the details coming up, a little later. ♪ the u.n. humanitarian chief said nearly 200,000 people have been killed in the three-year syrian conflict, the latest violence is

centered in northwest of the country where 100 syrian soldiers and 60 rebel fighters died. and we report. [gunfire] not the first time the opposition tried to push out government forces but on monday the attack against the heavily military zone located on the outer reaches of the providence was well planned and coordinated, hundreds of rebel fighters took part in the operation, it is a strategic win because the syrian military has been forced to retreat from there and the largest bases in this region and lie on a highway that links the north to the south. >> translator: this is important because it lies on a main junction and this resumes presence in the north and the north is important since it was from here when the operations started. >> reporter: this is a major military setback for the government which has lost control over much of it but it's also a setback for the so called

moderate rebels, the assault was led by al--nusra front the al-qaeda branch and consolidating the branch after pushing out western backed rebels from the province and when al--nusra did that they took their weapons and according to the human rights the heavy arms were used in offensive and one of al-nusra promised more battlefield successes. >> translator: our message to every syrian person protecting assad your destiny will end up like soldiers destiny today and left them to die for three years and never tried to save them so they died at the hands of them. >> reporter: the syrian military says the fight is not over but the rebels are already celebrating. but it is al-nusra in particular which won the battle and now it's the dominate force in that corner of syria, al jazeera, beirut. russia currency falling so

fast that the central bank has increased interest rates to 17%, just compare that to india where rates there are at 8%, relatively high but then india is guarding itself against inflation, the comparison against the west is even more shocking. they are just half a percent in the united kingdom and even lower between 0 and a quarter percent in the u.s., russia trying to protect its currency which plummeted 49% this year alone and look here on march the third what happened is the rubel plunged to record low against the dollar and euro as the cold war tensions and it will suffer more contracting by more than 4 1/2%, that figure is according to the international monetary funds, compare that to the united states which is expected to grow by nearly 3%. and jane is a currency

strategist in the bank in london and asked her if the interest rate rise will work. >> it's going to be very interesting over the next couple of hours and days to see if it really does work and of course this is emergency meeting which they hiked interest rates last night, the scheduled meeting was december 11 and decided to hike interest rates by 100 bases points and 1% and that is an economy which is really risking recession which is a big measure and clearly not enough to push away the currency speculator so they really have a desperate measure and hiking to 17% and of course we know that the economy can't sustain interest rates that high for that long so what they are hoping for is stability in the rubel quite soon and hopefully in the next few weeks or months they will be able to start reducing the level of interest rates but right now it's a little bit too early to see whether or not. >> jane, you said it, that the

economy is on the verge of recession so the hike in interest rates means slow economic growth for the russian economy which is not good in this situation. >> that is exactly right. what they are trying to do, of course by stabilizing the rubel and hoping to save lives and try to avoid a worsening financial crisis for the country and stabilize inflation and we know about sanctions on russia related to the situation in ukraine and counter sanctions and as a consequence of that and a ban of imports from russia from europe and price inflation is really high levels so by trying to stabilize the rubel they are trying to stabilize inflation and trying to bring some calm into the economy, to the economic outlook and there has been if you like a perfect storm and the russian economy was slowing in 2013 before the ukrainian situation, anyway and now of course we have a drastic reduction in oil prices and oil

prices falls and it's good for consumption everywhere and hitting producing countries hard in terms of revenue into the government, in terms of investment and of course employment as well. >> that is definitely the context of which russia finds itself in jane but let me ask you about other countries that have taken the same drastic measures, is there any country that russia can perhaps learn from? >> well, of course if we go back not that long ago start of this year and end of last year turkey had a situation with a lot of pressure on currency and hiked interest rates by a significant margin and that again, those rates did not have to be sustained for too long and turkey was able to start cutting. right now the turkish economy is in a far better position and at least because it has a large need to import oil and of course the lowering of oil price will help that country so it's expected that if the rebel does

stabilize interest rates don't have to stay at this level too long but respective they are facing recession into 2015 and it's very difficult to predict how deep that recession could be at this moment. >> special forces in france arrested at least ten people in a series of raids and groek end up an organization that are kruts young muslims to travel to iraq and syria to fight and we have tim friend from paris. >> reporter: 18-month investigation and most arrests made in the southern city here but police also raided addresses in normandy in the north and paris. the recruitment organization is understand to have played a big part in sending young men to fight for groups including i.s.i.l. in a statement after the arrests, the french interior minister said that dismantling similar organizations was now a

police priority. it's believed the investigation began after detectives were contacted by the mother of a young turkish man, potential recruit, but despite this apparent success the french authorities still face huge challenges in preventing young men traveling to conflict zones. the french government estimates that 1,000 french nationals have so far gone to fight in iraq and syria. it's thought 400 are currently fighting on the ground, about 55 have been killed during operations. according to specialist observers it's getting harder for the police to identity potential recruits. >> translator: these days it is difficult to say what is the profile of a typical french jihadist and come from urban areas or and one had a nice

childhood. >> reporter: they have been prime recruiting grounds in the past and they introduced tough new laws to prevent people leaving to join armed groups but some here fear that will increase resentment and willingness to take up arms. tim friend, al jazeera, paris. thousands of protesters in germany have called on the government to turn back muslim asylum seekers and they are against the organization of the west organized the march and some 4 million muslims live in germany and also a large counter demonstration by antifascists and the weather with everton and heavy snow in parts of morocco. >> we have seen nasty storms there with flooding rains and this is more welcome if the truth be known and over the high grounds and this is the satellite picture and this is

area of cloud drifting across the atlas mountains and a dusting of snow coming through and a ski resort and it has been somewhat more welcome but you can see the kind of conditions and always good to get out for a snowball fight and that is good and 1600 meters above sea level and looking at the weather coming northwest of africa. and more wet weather coming through and high ground there for tuesday, that rain across in northern areas of nigeria and going east as we go on through the next couple days and morocco bright ending up nicely and good news and heavy rain in place in the northeastern parts of nigeria and tunesia and showers in africa as one would expect showers a possibility into the gulf of guinea and wet weather to the south and getting wet weather in southern africa at

present and heavy rain in mozambique and that has caused some flooding and wet weather slowly makes its way slowly eastward over the next couple of days. >> still to come on al jazeera anger or education law in mianmar and the uk insists on transparency for pay rates for men and women and this is coming up, in sport lebron james leads to the sixth home one in a row and we will have this later. ♪

♪ you're with the al jazeera news hour and hello again the top stories, pakistan taliban attacking an army-run school in peshawar and more than 81 children are dead and over 100 injured, the fighters say this is in response to on going military operations in pakistan northern territory. tony abbot paid tributes to the victim of a siege at a cafe in central sidney and two hostages killed with the captor. the country's economy hit hard by a combination of sanctions over ukraine as well as plunging oil prices. oil is not alone when it comes to falling prices we are telling you about gas has a similar trend but it is very different

and we host al jazeera and has more now on the big players in the game which includes russia who are meeting here in doha this week. . >> reporter: if the world is to wean itself off oil then gas is the obvious first alternative which puts members of the gas exporting forum in a pretty handy position and they are as we bring up the map right to left russia in the middle east and cutter and i ran and a custer of nigeria, libya, egypt, algeria and guinea and over the water we have trinidad and venezuela and bolivia and kazistan, iraq, norway, netherlands have observed the status and they control 62% of the world gas reserves and makes it easy to label this forum as sort of a gas opec and they say we are not a cocktail and will

not manipulate processes and we want to exploit this for better gain and there was a gas bank to pay for developing new fields and pipeline and have not gone anywhere and have the likes of russia and cutter with big gas exporters and competitive in delivering gas to asia and europe and gas prices are falling and there are winners and losers and we have kpmg global head of energy and national resources to explain a bit more. >> reporter: let's look a little bit around the winner, if you look at what has happened to l and g price in asia, i mean that is half this year, so for people like japan that buy 70% of the l and g, that is absolutely great news. if we start looking at who is the possible losers, that can be even like americas and this

shale gas is cheap. however, if we start -- if we start liquifaction and add transportation price and compare it to oil index and cargo, those two might not be or the margin is not there anymore. so america can be a loser because of the drop in l and g prices. >> reporter: but the key to remember is gas is not a global commodity in the way oil is and the price is not set the same way and currently it's point to point and i sell you buy and it's limited but with huge potential to grow as well. turkey president erdiwan is talking about the media crack down and shouldn't get involved in security and hundreds gathered in istanbul to protest the crack down and 20 people arrested in a nationwide swoop.

>> translator: the european union should not intervene with turkish security forces with law with issues that deal with security and should mind their own business. >> reporter: this year has seen a sharp raise in the number of journalists kidnapped, a study shows 119 professional and 8 citizen journalists held captive this year, most were in the middle east and north africa. here are the most dangerous places to be working as a journalist in 2014. there is parts of syria and iraq, controlled by i.s.i.l. have seen journalists kidnapped as well as killed. many have been forced to swear allegiance to the so called islamic tela fate and three journalists gunned down this year, unknown number kidnapped. then there is pakistan, journalists working in the northern providence are caught between local armed groups and army and face frequent taliban

bombs and eastern ukraine because those regions saw six journalists killed between may and august and hostage taking, arbitrary arrests seem to have lessened since then and columbia northwest reporters are threatened and kidnapped and murder with almost complete immunity. and al jazeera continues to demand the release of our three journalists in prison in egypt for 353 days, greste and fahmy and mohamed were jailed on false charges of helping the out lawed muslim brotherhood and appealing against their convictions. we are returning to one of our top stories, the siege in sidney, this was the scene a short time ago in martin place, that is where flowers continue to be placed by the cafe where to hostages died and peter is the political international editor at the harold and i spoke to him earlier and asked him if

it was a politically motivated attack as tony abbot described it. >> i think we saw the case here where a character with a long history of rather ugly violence including being on a charge of accessory to the murdering of his own wife was looking for a grander cause to justify his violent campaign and he was an iran refugee and a shia and according to his own version converted to sunni islam so he could identify more closely with i.s.i.l. or i.s.i.s. so precisely what was going on in this guy's mind we will never really know but it looks as if he was searching for some sort of grander religious, political cover story, platform for his

own impulses. >> reporter: so was extremism the driving force behind this lone wolf attack as it's being described? >> well, that was certainly the propaganda this criminal was using. however, we know he just lost on friday his final appeal on criminal charges against him. and a couple days later he committed this act. so there may be large elements of personal despair as well as any alleged politically motivated legal motivation that he may have. and tony abbot the prime minister i think was using the expression politically motivated violence to avoid using islam extremism or any of the words that might reflect on islam. , in fact, i think one of the defining characteristics of tony abbot's appearance today is i think we see him growing up as a prime minister.

only a few months ago at a time when he was calling for more counter terrorism powers this was a prime minister saying he wished women would not wear the burka and playing what i think was silly political games and yet he talked about islam and said islam had nothing to do with this act and that very clearly impacting his words and islam had no more to do with this than catholic to the e -- emerge of the era. >> reporter: there is concern and some people feeling there could be a backlash against some of the muslim communities in australia and what are you hearing about that, what is the mood there now? >> for months they have been very worried that any sort of terrorist attack in the name of islam could set off a backlash so that has been an existing

concern. however, can i say that so far at least i mean it's a big city with more than 4 million people, we don't know how every individual will react but so far the muslim community is at pains to denounce this guy and his criminal acts. the broader community has been at pains to demonstrate solidarity with the quarter million muslims who live in australia including a very widely taken up twitter campaign. so we know that so far all the sentiments have been right and so far there have been no ugly outbreaks. >> we have been telling you about the on going situation at peshawar, an army-run school is under attack as we speak right now and getting the latest death tolls and we understand it's 126 people have been killed so far. many of those are children. in fact, this is according to local officials there. we also understand that just a few moments ago police are

saying, and this has been confirmed by our team's in pakistan, that three explosions were heard at that school in peshawar. so this school currently under attack by the taliban, the taliban has issued a statement, in fact, saying it's in response to the ongoing military operations in pakistan's northern territories and shariff the prime minister calling it a tragedy and hider is on the telephone and traveling to peshawar from islamabad and the latest information is these three explosions that have taken place, do you know what from? >> yes, indeed. we have heard about it and have been a number of explosions and the operation is still ongoing. we also know that the prime minister, the chief of the military general sharif and khan landed there and the prime minister is having an emergency

meeting. he is also said to be directly trying to watch the situation from the ground in that area but as you mentioned this has been an ongoing operation and as we had predicted earlier the death toll is mounting but one thing which had everybody worried is the fact there was hardly any security on the school premises at the time it was infiltrated to get in the compound and there will be some anger but at the same time the whole country is in a state of mourning. these are shocking images on national television showing school children being the victims of this deadly attack. >> and kamal and just to go back on those numbers that we are getting now, 126 people have been killed, just tell us a little bit about the school because we understand that most or a high number about 126 are in fact children.

>> indeed, and this school is situated just on the outskirts of peshawar and the fact that it is next to a graveyard we are now getting reports that the infiltrated were able to use the graveyard to enter into this school with over 500 students according to reports, most of the children were on the premises, some of the younger children were able to escape when the fighting started, but most of the senior students were not so lucky. so indeed most of the victims are children. this is assault target, not a military target and therefore there is widespread anger within the country as to why anybody would carry out such a deadly attack. now, even though the taliban in pakistan has said they lost their family members and they wanted to inflict pain, the move is likely to go against them because this will be public opinion against them and in favor of the military forces.

>> so does this mean then we are likely to see more military action against the pakistan taliban in -- in areas like north warzisistan and i ask why is the military unable to protect the school, this is an army-run school at the end of the day? >> there will be serious questions as far as the security of the school is concerned. this was definitely a major beef up of security, however, going after this militant with taliban and pakistan it's not easy because they have dispersed during military launch a major operation and some of the fighters were able to filter into other territories and he is waiting for orders and it appears the taliban in pakistan is also desperate because picking a target like this is not going to win them anything

as far as the people are concerned and sure to pick up desperation and the fact they have chosen a soft target and also want to terrorize the country because of an attack on this school is unheard of and therefore it's likely not to go down well with the people even though taliban is saying this is in revenge for some of their family members who have been killed in the military operation. >> thank you very much for that update, and updating us on the situation at that school in peshawar under attack by the taliban, 126 people killed so far. we will have more for you after the break. do stay with us.

♪ the latest death toll we have is 126 people have been killed. 122 injured in that taliban attack. this is according to a pakistani preventel official and we also understand in the past 15 minutes or so three explosions have been heard at that high school. so and on going situation at the peshawar school and we are monitoring developments and any information and we will bring it all to you right here at al jazeera. in indonesia the death toll from a landslide last week has risen to 56 and triggered by heavy rains on friday, more rain has held off the search for dozens of people who are still missing. and we report from the benjar

district where hundreds of rescue workers are searching for survivors. >> reporter: it used to be a village with rice fields and fish ponds now that all has been buried under a thick layer of muck. and equipped with ropes and shovels rescue workers trying to dig up the victims located by the mounds of dead bodies and for days he tried to find his parents and ten of the relatives. >> translator: i came here to help, i want to find my family very badly. whatever condition i want to find them. >> reporter: a grim and difficult task, digging in the soil often with their bare hands and taken by surprise and sitting in their houses they had no time to escape. the search for bodies is suddenly stopped when the weather worsens, rescue workers and volunteers leave the area.

dangerous conditions in the mountains are delaying the excavation process significantly. >> translator: i just flew over the area and saw a lot of water on top of the landslide area which means more land slides are likely to happen, especially when there is more rain and why we stopped rescue efforts during heavy rain, as soon as it clears up we will continue. >> reporter: the mountain region in central here is prone to landslides and more people have slide in landslides than any other disaster and people are aware of the risks they did not see this coming. >> translator: i'm so afraid i don't dare to go back there. i'm afraid there will be more land slides. i don't know where to go. it's up to the government. >> reporter: together with hundreds of people spending a night in a temporary shelter but no village to return to survivors are hoping the government will relocate them soon. leaving behind their fertile

farmland and relatives who are still unaccounted for. i'm with al jazeera, central java. more on that developing story out of the pakistani city of peshawar, more than 126 people mostly students are dead after a taliban attacked an army-run school and the attack is still going on and we have a military analyst and retired general and she says that the taliban is trying to create a big psychological impact. >> well, i think what has happened is that the hot dog and it's difficult for them to sort of penetrate so i think they have chosen a soft target and this will create a huge psychological impact and this is what exactly they wanted to do. so as to demoralize the nation and the people and the parents and everyone so that they go against the military campaign. but it's going to be just the opposite. i think it will make the people

have a much greater resolve and determination and you will see that the new army star sharif will go all out against the militants and i think this has been sort of a wrong policy on their part to have killed innocent civilians, even those people who were somewhat hesitant and even the political party which is in power the place where this incident took place, they have been somewhat dilley dallying about the support to the military. now i think they will have no option to in that sense i think it will make the nation far more resolved and determined to take these people on. >> reporter: we are joined now on the telephone and kamal is on his way to peshawar and what can you tell us about the prime minister himself reaching peshawar? >> reporter: well, according to the report the prime minister wants to supervise the operation

himself. he had also called a crisis meeting while he is in peshawar and we are told he already reached peshawar and told the pack tan -- pakistan chief is in peshawar to appraise himself of the situation and in the last few minutes we heard from the military spokesman saying the military helicopter has flown over the area and the fighting is still continuing. according to our reports we have been getting a number of attackers are still fighting back. we have also heard of a number of explosions which would suggest that possibly they are using hands grenades and that of course would mean that the death toll is likely to rise and also have been told beyond the 26 days there are over 200 wounded so there has been an emergency situation in the hospital, of course, the doctors will be trying to save as many lives as possible but there are feelings that the death toll would go

even higher. >> kamal we know the pakistan military is saying now that four taliban attackers have been killed at the school, the search continues for the remaining gunman, do we know how many gunman originally attacked that school and also just give us an idea of how many students are at that school. >> well, it's said to be at least six although there were reports that up to seven attackers may be involved and these are according to eyewitnesses and some of the children who were able to escape from the school were mentioned there were at least 6-7 attackers and the school is 500 students, and more of the students were present there and also some sort of a reunion at the school and at the same time there were exams going on, so the attendance was quite larnl and therefore the number of

casualties is quite large and there are details at this particular school situated here and it's adjacent to a graveyard and where the attackers had come into the compound. they will of course be question marks if there was adequate security at that school. it appears this is a major security breach even though no one expected an attack on the school particularly given the fact they had children there, so the taliban have chosen a soft target it appears. >> what they have said is this is a response to the ongoing military operations in pakistan's northern territories, that targeted their families. >> well, the taliban has been saying that, but remember most of the children who are studying in those schools are not just military personnel's children but ordinary people who put their children in military schools because of the relatively better standards of

education. so it is not just that the military families have been hurt but that ordinary people have been hurt as well and as you heard a little while ago, this of course will mean that the people will now leave behind the military and their potential in the tribal areas and there has been some reluctance as far as support was concerned but attack on the school is likely to change everything. >> will we see an increase military offensive against the pakistani taliban in those areas that they currently operated? >> well, it is very difficult to go after these groups because they have started, number one, they do not have a force and located at a started position and these are after all fighters who are here and this is dealing

with this sort of situation and the military of course launched a major operation in north warzistan in june to deny the space but appears the taliban regrouped and had more deadly attacks in the coming days. >> so what does that mean then, kamal for enhanced security measures? >> well, people at large would be wanted because of the safety of their children, their schools and of course that will be a major factor and will of course mean they will have to be more security measures as far as the schools are concerned in order to ensure that something like this does not happen. >> what does sharif saying or doing right now to make sure that people feel the country is protected? >> well, sharif has gone to peshawar to supervise the operation however this is going to be a military-led operation

and he has cabinet members to peshawar according to reports so beyond supervising what is happening on the ground there is not much that the prime minister sharif can do except say this is a national tragedy so the military is involved in the rescue operation, the prime minister of course will be there because there will be considerable anger across the country if the prime minister does not respond to such a situation. so many purposes it appears that the prime minister also wants to be there to show the people that he is -- that he is concerned, that he wants to make sure that nothing of this sort happens again. however, the prime minister is moved to peshawar and is not going to be the significant factor, it will be the military rescue teams as to what they are able to do, already we have seen very high casualties and shown

the determination of the attackers who most and in most cases who would rather be fighting than surrender and that of course is alarming because we also hear that they are, they do have explosives with them and they are probably carrying grenades as well so the operation is still underway and of course the number of attackers that are still at large even though we have been told up to four attackers have been killed, two or three are attacked and said to be at large and fighting back at the security forces. >> kamal thank you for the time being for that update as kamal was speaking to us, we are just looking at some of the pictures we have from peshawar pakistan and there are some of the victims there of some of those children that have been killed. we will have much more on that attack on the school in pakistan's peshawar city in just a moment. due stay with al jazeera.

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