RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD:5th anniversary of horrible terrorist attack on Army Public School Peshawar is being marked with heavy heart to remember 132 students and 17 staff members of the school.
On Dec 16, 2014, six terrorists affiliated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan carried out the horrific attack on the school and killed 132 innocent students and 17 staff members.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, on the fifth anniversary of the Army Public School (APS) attack, said the carnage will never be forgotten.
In a tweet on Monday via the Inter-Services Public Relations account, Gen Bajwa stated: “Five of the involved terrorists have been hanged through military courts. Salute to martyrs and their families.”
“We have come a long way in failing terrorism as a nation. United we move towards lasting peace and prosperity of Pakistan,” he said.
President Arif Alvi in his message said the nation “cannot forget the massacre of little angels/teachers”. “Hard to commemorate this day without tears in one’s eyes. In its remembrance, we reiterate our pledge to root out terrorism and extremism in all its manifestations from our country,” he said.
“A day that can never be forgotten — a tragedy so intense it shook the nation to its core — the APS terror attack that took away the lives of so many innocent children along with their teachers,” Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said on Twitter.
“Tears and prayers are all we have left alongside a resolve to ensure ‘never again’,” she said.
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called it “a travesty” that the APS commission report hasn’t been released even now.
“It is a failure of the state that justice has not been served. Its inexcusable that the National Action Plan (NAP) still isn’t implemented,” he said. “As a victim of terrorism, one who has yet to find justice, I know the pain of all those who lost loved ones. And to them I say, I am with you.”
MNA Ali Wazir said “the pain is very deep and cannot be erased from our minds”.
“Each peaceful day in Pakistan is a tribute to our youngest soldiers … we have not forgotten,” said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfiqar Bukhari.
On Dec 16, 2014, armed militants stormed APS, Peshawar, and carried out the deadliest attack in the country’s recent history.
The militants, wearing paramilitary uniforms, scaled the school’s rear wall on Warsak Road using ladders and cut the barbed wire along the top of the wall. Once inside the school, they opened fire in all directions.
The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the outlawed Mullah Fazlullah-led Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. The attack on APS saw a shift in public opinion on the country’s struggle against militancy.
In the aftermath of the attack, the army intensified Operation Zarb-e-Azb in tribal areas where militants had previously operated with impunity, and the government announced to launch the sweeping National Action Plan to tackle militancy.
With input from INP
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