Terrorist involved in APS attack arrested

PESHWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Tuesday arrested a notorious terrorist involved in the Army Public School (APS) attack which left 151, mostly students and their teachers, dead in 2014.

According to a press release issued by CTD, Jan Wali, a resident of Bara, Khyber tribal district, was arrested from Karkhano Market in Peshawar on the basis of special information. “During the attack seven suicide bombers blew themselves up. Around 151 people were killed and 147 were injured,” said an official of the CTD while talking to The Express Tribune. “Special teams had been formed to arrest this man,” he said.

Separately, CTD Peshawar also arrested a man involved in extortion. CTD said that a local trader had lodged an FIR with police that he was being threatened by unidentified extortionists who were demanding Rs6 million from him. Police opened investigation in the case and finally reached the accused Hammad Ashraf. In its earlier news item The Express Tribune had reported that all perpetrators of the 2014 Army Public School (APS) attack, including masterminds and those who executed the terrorist activity, have been killed, sentenced to death and necessary action taken against them.

All 12 terrorists involved in the attack were apprehended by the security forces out of whom, six main terrorists were tried by the military courts. They were handed down death sentences. Five of them were executed while one terrorist filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Pakistan Army was appreciated and no blame was affixed on it by the highest inquiry commission formed in the aftermath of the tragic incident that left more than 145 martyred, most of them school students.

Soon after the attack, a national consensus was achieved and the National Action Plan (NAP) was drafted to curb the rampant spread of terrorism in the country. The military, in successive campaigns, wrestled back control of areas in erstwhile FATA, which had become a hotbed of militant activity. Army also took disciplinary action against those individuals, who did not come up to the warranted necessary measures, including dismissal from service. The judicial commission concluded on June 30, 2020, that terrorism perpetrated by the enemies of Pakistan reached its peak in 2013-2014. The report stated that assistance provided to terrorists by the school’s locality is unpardonable.