President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi  “strongly condemned” the terror attack on a school in Pakistan’s Peshawar city in which at least 126 school children were killed.

Mukherjee expressed “deep anguish” and “strongly condemned” the incident in which heavily armed terrorists launched a brazen attack on the army-run school.

In a message, the president said: “Such heinous acts are against all tenets of humanity. They are nothing but a manifestation of the extreme evil that terrorists are capable of. The world community must unite and redouble efforts to root out terrors from every country and society.

Mukherjee conveyed his condolences to the grieving families and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Modi in a tweet said: “Strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack at a school in Peshawar.

“It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings – young children in their school. My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today. We share their pain & offer our deepest condolences,” the tweet added.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan too expressed sorrow at the incident.

“This is a gruesome and heinous act. The perpetrators of such acts are enemies of mankind,” Mahajan said.