POCATELLO — Dozens of people attended a special candlelight vigil Thursday at the home of Dr. Fahim Rahim for victims of a massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, earlier this week. The attacks claimed the lives of 148 people, mostly children.

Grace Jacobson and Tess Greenup, both from Pocatello, were among those who came to the vigil to pay their respects..

“The vigil is a way to bring attention to the massacre, and that’s just what it was,” Jacobson said.

Greenup said she came to the vigil to remember the teachers and the students who died in Tuesday’s attack.

Rahim, the cofounder of Idaho Kidney Institute, grew up in Peshawar and still has family living there. He opened up his home and invited the community to come and share prayers and condolences for the victims of the atrocity and to show unity as a global community.

“This is like 9/11 to Pakistan,” Rahim said. “The terrorists want to divide us, but that won’t happen. I’m glad people are strong in their conviction. This act crosses all borders of humanity.”

According to World News reports, the terror attack on the Army Public School on Tuesday in the northern city near the Afghan border was one of the worst incidents of extremist violence in Pakistan since a 2007 suicide bombing in the city of Karachi killed 150 people. 

Among the victims from Tuesday’s terror attack were 132 children and 16 staff members.

Rahim’s cousin, Ali Khan, resides in Pocatello now. But he also lived in Peshawar and attended the school where the killing took place.

“It is a global tragedy,” Khan said. “All these innocent lives lost. We need to tell the world that we are going to fight these people. No one has ever stooped to this level before.”

The Pakistani military said Wednesday that seven gunman stormed the school donning explosive vests. They fired indiscriminately as they entered the school.

Tahira Qazi, Khan’s former English teacher, was among Tuesday’s victims.

Khan said Qazi was the vice principal when he attended the public school from 2002 to 2004 but had since been named the school’s principal.

As Qazi tried to protect her students, Taliban members poured gasoline on her and lit her on fire in front of the children.

“These people want us to be afraid. They want them to remember that they burned your teacher to death,” Khan said. “But we have to unite against them, and we will.”

Since the attacks, Khan said the Pakistani government has launched 50 air strikes against Taliban targets, and a moratorium on the execution of suspected terrorists jailed in the country was lifted on Wednesday.

Currently, almost 8,000 suspected terrorists are jailed in Pakistan.

“This wasn’t political. It wasn’t religious. It was nonsensical. There is no way to justify killing children,” Khan said. “It is meant to divide us, but we need to use it to unite against this kind of senseless act.”