Pakistan Taliban Identifies Mastermind of Peshawar Massacre as Umar Mansoor

MOSCOW, December 20 (Sputnik) – Umar Mansoor, 36, claimed responsibility for an attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, which left 132 children and nine adults dead, Reuters reports.

Tehreek-e-Taliban said Mansoor masterminded the assault in a video posted on Thursday. "If our women and children die as martyrs, your children will not escape," the father of three said, as quoted by the Independent. "We will fight against you in such a style that you attack us and we will take revenge on innocents," he stated in an attempt to justify the attack.

Tehreek-e-Taliban described Mansoor as the leader of the Taliban in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and Darra Adam Khel, a town located between Peshawar and Kohat.

Mansoor is said to have joined Taliban in 2007, Reuters said, citing unnamed sources from the Taliban. He is nicknamed "nary", meaning slim in Pashto. "He was very strict from the start when he joined," a Taliban member told the news agency, adding that Mansoor "left many commanders behind if they had a soft corner (of their heart) for the government."

"Umar Mansoor had a tough mind from a very young age, he was always in fights with other boys," a member of the Taliban said, as quoted by Reuters. Another militant described Mansoor as a person who "strictly follows the principles of jihad."

The mastermind behind the Peshawar massacre is also said to be an avid volleyball player. "He is a good volleyball player. Wherever he shifts his office, he puts a volleyball net up," a Taliban member said, as quoted by Reuters.

On Tuesday, militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out an attack on the Peshawar school, killing 141 people, mostly children. Militants said they assaulted the school in retaliation for an operation carried out by the Pakistani army in North Waziristan and the Khyber area.