Pakistani schools closed yesterday to mark the first anniversary of the Taliban attack that killed over 150 people in Peshawar, 144 of them schoolchildren.

The closures were part a day of national mourning and a precaution against terrorist attacks tied to the anniversary, said government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani.

Top civilian and military leaders attended a ceremony in Peshawar, in the north-west, to award medals to the victims’ families.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resolved to weed out extremism, declaring: “We will take revenge for every drop of our children’s sacred blood.”

In the wake of the attack, Pakistan stepped up its campaign against jihadists, lifting a moratorium on the death penalty and trying alleged extremists in military courts.

The army claims to have killed 3,400 militants in a major military push in the North Waziristan tribal region along the Afghan border, which has long served as a safe haven for local and al-Qaida-linked foreign extremists.