APS commission to submit report by June 30

Parents of martyred students had requested ex-CJ Nisar to conduct judicial inquiry of the attack

PESHAWAR: The commission formed under the chairmanship of Peshawar High Court (PHC) Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan has completed its investigation into the Army Public School (APS) carnage.

The commission recorded the statements of over 135 people including the parents of students who were martyred in the attack.

It will present its report to the Supreme Court until June 30.

In the deadliest attack in the country’s history, armed militants affiliated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan stormed the APS Peshawar and martyred 132 innocent students and 17 staff members on December 16, 2014.

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 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.

According to the spokesperson of the commission, the parents of the martyred students in 2018 had filed a petition and requested the Supreme Court to conduct a judicial inquiry of the APS incident.

The then chief justice Saqib Nisar during his visit to Peshawar had taken notice of the issue when parents of several deceased APS students approached him with a request for intervention to address their grievances.

Nisar approved the request and the high court constituted a commission on October 12, 2018 under the chairmanship of PHC Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan.

Earlier, the Shuhada Foundation had approached both federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments for the formation of a judicial commission for probing the carnage, but in vain.

The major demand of the complainants was the fixing of responsibility on the relevant officials for negligence, which led to the killings.

Following the carnage, the parents came to know about a confidential letter through which the National Counter Terrorism Authority had on August 28, 2014, informed different provincial and federal authorities that the banned militant outfit – Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan – had planned to carry out terrorist activities against the Army Public School and College and other educational institutions run by the Pakistan Army and to kill the maximum number of children of army officers to avenge the killings of their accomplices.

In an application to Nisar, the Shuhada Forum consisting of the parents of the deceased APS students had said they wanted to know about the steps taken after that confidential communication and about the negligent officials, who did not take that ‘Threat Alert’ seriously.

The commission recorded the statements of the high-ranking officials of army, police and counter-terrorism department.

It also reviewed the record regarding the investigation and proceedings carried until now.