How despicable is a terrorist attack if even the Afghanistan Taliban is condemning it as over the top?  That is exactly what has happened.  The Afghanistan Taliban is criticizing its ideological allies in the Pakistani Taliban for the school attack in Peshawar that killed 132 students and all nine gunmen.

“The intentional killing of innocent people, children and women are against the basics of Islam and this criteria has to be considered by every Islamic party and government,” said Afghani Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement. 

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed that “we will avenge every single drop of our children’s blood”.

“The time has come for the entire nation to rise against the terrorists,” Sharif said in Peshawar.  Indeed, military strikes at suspected Taliban targets in northern Waziristan are already underway.  So are the funerals for the murdered students.

On Tuesday morning, Taliban gunmen broke into a military-run high school, making their way into the heavily guarded compound through a back entrance.  One reportedly detonated a suicide belt, while the others fanned out class-to-class, killing as many students as possible.  The dead ranged in age from ten- to 20-years old.  A visiting toddler was also reportedly shot.  Late into the night, officials were still trying to unite the bodies with their families.

“One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand and she was crying in pain,” said 15-year old survivor Shahrukh Khan, who was shot in both legs.  “One terrorist then walked up to her and started shooting her until she stopped making any sound.  All around me my friends were lying injured and dead.”

The Taliban picked that particular school because many of the more than 1,100 students are the sons of military families, including several important officers. 

“We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani.  “We want them to feel the pain.”

When children are killed, the world tends to feel the pain.  Australia is still reeling from this week’s hostage situation at a coffee shop in Sydney’s CBD in which two people and a self-proclaimed jihadist died.  Prime Minister Tony Abbott shared Australia’s sympathy with Pakistan.

"It is simply impossible to put into words, the mixture of grief and fury that must be felt by people in Pakistan, and indeed around the world, at this latest terrorist atrocity,” Abbot said on ABC Radio.

“And I hope, I hope in my deepest heart that somewhere in the hearts of people who might otherwise be attracted to this, there is a realization that it is never, ever right to kill innocent people.  And that’s what we've seen on a mass scale in Pakistan overnight.”

Some other international reaction:

“This act of terror angers and shakes all people of conscience.. the perpetrators must be brought to justice,” said US Secretary of State John Kerry.

On social media, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings – young children in their school.”  He continued, “My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today.  We share their pain and offer our deepest condolences.”