Pakistani English newspapers were one in telling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government and the army to deal with extremist groups with an iron fist, a day after Taliban gunmen killed at least 141 people, mostly children, in a Peshawar military school.

The country's most circulated English daily, The News, told the Pakistani public "to pause and reflect on what we have become." 

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Pakistan's oldest English newspaper, Dawn, said operations against terrorism would "amount to little more than fire-fighting," unless security forces zero in on the ideological roots of militancy and their reach in society.

The Nation scored Sharif for  giving "absolutely nothing" making a firm stand against extremism and for not taking "meaningful political ownership" of a military mop-up initiative against the Taliban.

The paper called opposition leader, Imran Khan, the nation's most vocal Taliban sympathizer who consistently justified the "murder of fellow countrymen."  

The Nation was the only newspaper to criticize the army for its inconsistent policy towards terror groups. The paper's editorial also challenged Pakistan's civil society not to seek comfort in conspiracy theories and asked the public to stand united against extremism unequivocally.

Pakistan's Express Tribune, without identifying Imran, rejected his proposal for "peace talks" with the Pakistan Taliban and noted his refusal to name the Taliban in condemning Tuesday's attack. 

A liberal broadsheet, Daily Times, said, "There is no way a solid, chapter-turning decision cannot be made after what is, no doubt, a national tragedy." 

On Tuesday, armed Taliban men broke into a military-run school in Peshawar and shot to death at least 132 students and nine school staff. 

Authorities said 121 other students and three more staff members were injured in the attack. A local hospital reported the ages of the dead and injured ranged from 10 to 20 years old.

Witnesses said the attackers wore suicide vests when they entered the compound and opened fire indiscriminately on teachers and pupils.