‘APS martyrs have been avenged,’ say parents

Khattak says ‘the devil incarnate’ has met his fate

PESHAWAR: Mullah Fazlullah, the self-confessed perpetrator of the 2014 carnage of over 140 pupils and staff at the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar, is dead. Parents of the victims say that their children have finally been avenged.

Fazlullah, who had earned the moniker of Mullah Radio for his sermons on his FM radio in Swat, was killed along with his four lieutenants in a drone strike in northeastern Kunar province of Afghanistan on June 13.

“We’re happy to learn that the killer of our innocent children has been killed,” said Tufail Khattak while speaking to The Express Tribune. “Mullah Fazlullah, the devil incarnate, has met his fate.”



Tufail’s son Sher Shah was among the victims of the APS attack. “[APS attack] was one of the heinous tragedies in the history of Pakistan, but unfortunately on this Eidul Fitr, no one remembered the children who had been massacred,” Khattak regretted.

However, he added that “the brutal massacre of the innocent schoolchildren has at last been avenged bringing solace to the bereaved parents. The martyrs of APS will always be remembered, while terrorists will face eternal damnation.”

Khattak went on to say that both Pakistan and Afghanistan should sit together and work out a joint strategy to eradicate terrorism.

“[Fazlullah] was a Sultana Daku. And we’re happy to learn that he is dead. But I still think that he was used as a pawn. There were many more people, including those responsible for the security lapse,” said Muhammad Tahir while talking to The Express Tribune.

Tahir lost a son, Muhammad Shaheer, an eighth-grader at the APS, in the most gruesome terrorist attack in the history of Pakistan.



Pakistani officials have repeatedly said that the intelligence agencies of India and Afghanistan -- RAW and NDS -- are funding and arming the TTP to fuel terrorism in Pakistan.

Abdullah Azam, an FSC student, was also martyred in the Dec 16, 2014 attack. His brother, Sikandar, said he was glad that Fazlullah has been taken out as he was still orchestrating attacks in Pakistan from Afghan soil.

“Mullah Fazlullah is just one man. His entire network should be dismantled, if we want to get rid of this menace of terrorism,” he said.

“Still the death of Mullah Radio is a good development because he was responsible for the killing of so many innocent people.”

“We are happy that the killer of our innocent children has been killed,” said Tufail Khattak while speaking to The Express Tribune. “Mullah Fazlullah, the devil incarnate, has met his fate.”

Tufail’s son Sher Shah was among the dozens of schoolchildren martyred in the APS attack. “[The APS attack] was one of the heinous tragedies in the history of Pakistan but unfortunately on this Eidul Fitr, no one remembered the children who had been massacred mercilessly by terrorists,” Khattak regretted.

Khattak went on to say that both Pakistan and Afghanistan should sit together and work out a joint strategy to eradicate terrorism.

“The brutal massacre of the innocent schoolchildren has at last been avenged bringing solace to the bereaved parents. The martyrs of APS will always be remembered, while terrorists will face eternal damnation,” he added.

Fazal Khan Advocate, the father of Sahibzada Omar Khan who was also martyred in the APS attack, said the aggrieved families were really thankful to the US government and its forces in Afghanistan as well as the Afghan government for Fazlullah’s killing.

“Ironically, these terrorists operated in Pakistan for years and survived but they were wiped out by the United States in drone strikes one-by-one even though they posed no threat to the United States,” he added. “The US administration should finish off the remaining Pakistani militants hiding in Afghanistan.