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.
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The parents of martyred Army Public School (APS) children protested during the address of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday.
“All the people of Pakistan are with us and they are trying to support us and helping us to move towards the future and to just forget this incident”, said Muhammad Hamza, 17, a student whose brother died in the attack. Students and parents complain of ongoing trauma for which many are still receiving psychological help. She said that operation Zarb-e-Azab and the National Action Plan are being forwarded successfully against terrorism.
The House strongly condemned the barbaric atrocity, which was a crime against humanity and once again expressed deepest sympathy with the families of the victims.
“Everyone is traumatised inside the school”, said Mehran Khan, a 14-year-old student at the school.
“We think a lot about the students who lost their lives”, Abu Bakar, a teacher who was shot three times as he threw himself in front of fleeing children during the siege, told AFP, saying the loss was “something that can not be described”. Earlier this month, four militants alleged to be involved in the massacre by aiding the attackers were reportedly hanged. “Every child of this school is my son”.
When Shahbaz Sharif reached Peshawar to attend the main ceremony held on the first anniversary of the martyrs of APS Peshawar, he was received by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak and central leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Ameer Muqam.
PPP Senator and former Pakistan ambassador to US Shireen Rehman demanded a judicial inquiry into the APS tragedy.
He paid tributes to the armed forces for waging a campaign against terrorism under the leadership of army chief General Raheel. He announced that the provincial government was going to setup a big technology university in Haripur, which would be named after martyrs of the APS.
The authorities at the Peshawar army school carried out massive renovations in an attempt to remove the memory of the attack.
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He was addressing a commemoration ceremony on the 1 anniversary of Shuhada Army Public School Peshawar that was organized by Lahore Garrison Education Institution in Lahore Cantt.
