Kenyan official says people caught in militant attacks must fight, not die 'like cockroaches'

A morgue worker observes a row of photographs of some of those killed in the Garissa attack, which families were asked to bring to accompany the bodies after they are released for burial, at the Chiromo Funeral Parlour in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, April 9, 2015. A week after the attack by extremist group al-Shabab on Garissa University College, relatives of the deceased continued their wait Thursday for the bodies to be released, hoping to be able to arrange their burials. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (The Associated Press)

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A member of Kenya's security forces walks past a row of photographs of some of those killed in the Garissa attack, which families were asked to bring to accompany the bodies after they are released for burial, at the Chiromo Funeral Parlour in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, April 9, 2015. A week after the attack by extremist group al-Shabab on Garissa University College, relatives of the deceased continued their wait Thursday for the bodies to be released, hoping to be able to arrange their burials. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (The Associated Press)

A man looks at one in a row of photographs of some of those killed in the Garissa attack, which families were asked to bring to accompany the bodies after they are released for burial, at the Chiromo Funeral Parlour in Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, April 9, 2015. A week after the attack by extremist group al-Shabab on Garissa University College, relatives of the deceased continued their wait Thursday for the bodies to be released, hoping to be able to arrange their burials. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (The Associated Press)

NAIROBI, Kenya – After a deadly attack on Kenyan students, a senior police official is urging Kenyans who may find themselves in a similar predicament to fight back and avoid being killed "like cockroaches."

Pius Masai Mwachi, a Kenyan police superintendent, spoke Thursday at a Nairobi morgue holding the bodies of some of the 148 people who died in the April 2 attack by Islamic militants at a college in Garissa town.

Mwachi says any Kenyans who fall into the hands of militants should not allow themselves to be divided along ethnic and religious lines, "like what happened in the Garissa attack."

Survivors say gunmen from the al-Shabab extremist group targeted Christian students for killing after separating them from Muslims, though there were also many accounts of indiscriminate shooting.