APS Peshawar tragedy: SC asks govt to redress grievances of martyrs’ families

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, directed Attorney General for Pakistan to take steps for redressing the grievances of the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar martyrs’ families.

More than 140 persons, most of them children and school staffers, were martyred when militants stormed the school on December 16, 2014.

A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard the suo moto regarding attack on the APS, Peshawar.

The bench summoned Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan and amicus curiae Amanullah Kanrani on the next date.

During the proceeding, the families of the APS martyrs appeared before the bench.

They expressed dissatisfaction over the measures taken by the provincial and the federal governments.

Sixth anniversary of APS tragedy observed

They said action was taken only against low-level officials, but no case was registered against the top officials.

They requested the bench “to order for the registration of an FIR against the then Army Chief General (retired) Raheel Sharif, DG ISI Lt-Gen (retired) Zaheerul Islam, Corps Commander, Peshawar, Lt-Gen (retired) Hadayatur Rehman, the then Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and the then Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak,” who they claimed are actually responsible for the tragic incident. “If action is taken against them then such incident could be prevented in the future,” the heirs of the martyrs said.

Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel said most of the people who attacked the APS have already been hanged or killed.

A martyr’s mother claimed those who killed were the terrorists, but who had planned the attack are still alive. “We don’t need compensation from the government, but we want to take revenge of the children’s blood.”

Another martyr’s mother said the judicial commission on APS declared that the security failure was the main cause of the tragic incident.

The 525-page inquiry commission report maintained that the guards’ improper position and accentuated main gates and front area compromised the school’s security from the back, from where the terrorists managed to enter “with no retaliation”.

The report contained the statements of 132 people, including parents of the killed schoolchildren and police and army officials.

Former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar on the request of victims’ parents had taken suo moto of the incident, and in October 2018 had set up a one-man judicial commission headed by Justice Ibrahim Khan, a judge of the Peshawar High Court.

The commission was made after the parents of children demanded of the authorities to form a high-level inquiry commission to investigate the massacre.

The case was adjourned for two weeks.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021