ISLAMABAD: The families of those martyred in the terrorist
attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar on Saturday renewed
calls for a judicial commission to probe the incident to unmask the
masterminds behind the heinous attack.
Speaking at the
launch of Mata-i-Hayat, a book based on interviews of parents and
relatives of those martyred at APS, the late Asfand Khan’s mother
Shahana Azmat said that only pawns were brought to justice in the
aftermath of the attack.
On Dec 16, 2014, terrorists
from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out a vicious
assault on APS Peshawar, killing around 150 people, including 132
students between the ages of eight and 18.
Ms Azmat
maintained that the criminals who were tried and sentenced for the
killing of children, could not be the primary culprits.
Book of interviews with victims’ relatives launched at National Press Club
“They were just puppets; the main planners of the incident
have not be unmasked until today. We have been demanding justice for our
children, but unfortunately no one is willing to deliver. It is strange
that no one is willing to share details of the incident with us; we
want to know the name of the mastermind,” she said.
Recalling
macabre details of the incident, she said that there were a number of
children who were shot over a dozen times, and most of the other victims
had four to six gunshot wounds each.
“How could such a
huge cache of weapons be brought inside a school that is located in the
cantonment area, which is controlled by the army.
“There
must be some big guns behind the incident and it must have been planned
by some mastermind. We want to know who that is, because such attacks
cannot be planned and executed in just one day,” she said.
With tears in her eyes, Ms Azmat recalled that her son was 15 years old at the time of his death.
“He
would have been 18 today; how can any mother imagine that such a young
boy could die? We all want justice and will not stop until we get it,”
she said.
Advocate Ajoon Khan, who has filed a number of
petitions on behalf of the bereaved families and has made efforts
seeking the establishment of a judicial commission in this regard, told
Dawn that he had failed to attract the attention of the political elite.
“Last
year, we came to Islamabad and CADD Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry
assured us that he would arrange a meeting with the prime minister
within a week, but that never happened,” he said, recalling the
demonstration staged by families of APS victims in the capital in
September 2016.
“Two weeks ago, we had another meeting
with PML-N leader Amir Muqam, who also assured us that he would arrange a
meeting with the PM, but he has been ignoring us ever since.”
The
event at the National Press Club (NPS), held to mark the launch of
Rabia Rehman’s book, was also attended by former information minister
Firdous Ashiq Awan, GBLA Deputy Speaker Jafarullah and members of the
journalist community.
Ms Awan said that such incidents
could only be stemmed if, after changing the military doctrine, the
political doctrine would also be changed.
Speaking at
the occasion, the author recounted her tribulations as she interviewed
the families of young martyrs, saying that she was unable to control her
feelings.
