Pakistan´s largest private news channel, Geo TV has paid rich tribute to the martyrs of Army Public School Peshawar on the first anniversary of the massacre.
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The hangings of the school assailants were timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the massacre.
Nawaz Sharif, while addressing the ceremony at the Army Public School held to mark the first anniversary of the attack, said that the blood of the martyred children united the nation.
Back in Peshawar, 13-year-old student Uzair Khan told AFP that the Taliban wanted to stop their education so children would stay “ignorant like them”.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) – Pakistan closed schools across the country on Wednesday on the anniversary of last year’s Taliban attack that killed over 150 people, 144 of them schoolchildren, officials said. “We have no option but to fight it to the end”, he said, adding “terrorists are destined to go to hell whatever their faith and religion”.
Gulam Rasool Shah and Malik Ishaq both were killed by Pakistan’s counter terrorism department in two separate incidents. “Today, I wish I hadn’t obeyed my teacher, then my friends would have still been alive”, Paracha says.
The attack prompted the government to take several measures, including lifting a moratorium on the death penalty.
The entire political and military leadership including Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif are in attendance at the main function at APS. “Operation Zarb-e-Azb has destroyed the terrorist base in North Waziristan and there have been some actions against sectarian terrorists”.
It also serves as a reminder of the terrorists’ decision to attack the Pakistan Army, often accused of supporting militants, and the resolve to militarily combat the Pakistan’s terror problem in the aftermath of that attack.
Earlier this month, four of the facilitators of the militants were hanged after being convicted by the military courts.
Germany, the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Pakistan to cease executing prisoners.
The government has also announced to rename 10 schools in Punjab and five in the tribal region in the memory of the martyred students.
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Television footage showed the Army chief receiving the families of the APS attack victims at gates of the venue.
