Amid the hustle and bustle of Seoul’s Itaewon district on a busy Saturday night, a group of people gathered solemnly in response to an atrocity in their faraway home country.

Candles in paper cups formed a large peace sign on the sidewalk in Seoul’s largest international district on Dec. 20, where some six dozen citizens joined hands in a solemn prayer vigil for the victims of Pakistan’s Peshawar school massacre on Dec. 16, in which 145 innocent people, 132 of them children, were killed.

The event organizers ― the Pakistan Students’ Association and Pakistani Embassy ― said it was “the least we could do for them.”

“The terrorist attack was an attack on humanity, not just on the people of Pakistan. The objective of this event was to express our grief for the martyrs,” said Pakistani Ambassador to Korea Zahid Nasrullah Khan, one of the participants.

PSA president Zahid Hussain noted that Pakistan has been the biggest victim of terrorism for the last 14 years, since the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. forces. “We will never give up our fight against terrorism as we believe that we can get rid of this menace so that every person, irrespective of religion, nationality or ethnic background, can live peacefully without fear of the heinous terror that happened in our country,” Hussain said.

“This ruthless savagery left us all in deep shock. Our brains are paralyzed. This is beyond inhumane,” embassy intern Hiba Ikram said. “We Pakistanis didn’t expect a foreign community (to join us) but they came to support us and stand with us under these difficult hours.”

The Asia Journalist Association released the following statement on Dec. 17: “No oceans of ink are equal to the blood drops of a human being. But we have to continue writing against the enemies of mankind; the killers of innocence and the cruel face of terror, named, Taliban. … Free press is also required not only to cover the news, but to enlighten the masses against the danger of fanatic ideas, the basic fuel of terrorism.”

The Pakistani Taliban, a terrorist organization with close ties to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the incident, in which a group of students was held hostage for eight hours. It was also behind the shooting of 2014 Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai in 2012.

The terrorist group said that the attack was in response to a major offensive by the Pakistani military in the tribal badlands that has killed more than 1,600 of its fighters over the past six months. The school ― part of the country’s Army Public Schools and Colleges System ― taught children of officers and soldiers between the ages of 10 and 18.

“The militants knew they couldn’t strike at the heart of the military as they didn’t have the capacity. So they went for the soft targets,” Agence France-Presse reported.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)