Scarred forever: ‘They can’t even go to sleep at night without sedatives’
Intermediate student Amir Amin regained consciousness to find himself surrounded by his classmates’ bodies.
PESHAWAR:
The smell of disinfectant hangs sharply in the air. The ward is teeming with people as doctors and nurses flutter from one bed to another; patients cry in pain while their attendants make feeble attempts to soothe them.
Indifferent to the flurry of activity around him, Amir Amin, a second year student, lies quietly on his bed staring blankly at the ceiling. His demeanour is calm, belying the unimaginable horror he witnessed that black Tuesday when Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan decided to ‘take revenge’ from unsuspecting schoolchildren of Army Public School.
Doctors have barred media interviews of those injured patients who survived the deadliest assault in the country’s history. Even if interviews were allowed, Amir is in too great a shock to speak.
‘Come get me’
His older brother Waqar Amin sits by his side, grateful that his brother survived. Recalling the events of Tuesday, Waqar tells The Express Tribune that Amir called him and told him someone had invaded the school. “He kept on repeating one sentence: Come get me, they are firing and killing students,” says Waqar.
According to Waqar, Amir and his class fellows were inside a hall when the militants entered and began firing at the panicked teenagers. Amir was shot multiple times and lost consciousness.
“After half an hour, he might have regained consciousness and called me again. He said he was injured and was lying on the ground while all his classmates were dead and there was blood everywhere,” says Waqar.
An anxious Waqar waited outside the school building unable to go to his little brother’s aid. “No one was allowed to go near the building; when the army finally arrived I told the officials Amir’s location, they rescued him and shifted him to Lady Reading Hospital,” Waqar recalls.
Lost in the chaos
Amir is not the only member of the family to fall prey to the bloodthirsty militants. His brother Ishaq was also in the same college and he was nowhere to be found in the aftermath of the attack as the family searched frantically.
“Ishaq was missing because he had been shifted to Combined Military Hospital. We found him on Wednesday. He is critically injured and is in the intensive care unit,” Waqar says. According to the relieved brother, despite being badly injured Amir and Ishaq were fortunate to survive because the militants shot most of the students in the head, probably to save bullets.
“The animals killed two teachers and set their bodies on fire, some even stabbed students when they ran out of ammunition,” claims a relative. “One of them killed the children and threw their bodies from the roof. That animal was the first to be shot by the army commandoes.”
Echoing the view of every person right now, he says the boys were lucky to survive such an onslaught but whether they would ever be able to live normal lives again after witnessing their teachers, class fellows and friends slaughtered in cold blood is impossible to even consider. “They can’t even go to sleep at night without sedatives.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2014.
The smell of disinfectant hangs sharply in the air. The ward is teeming with people as doctors and nurses flutter from one bed to another; patients cry in pain while their attendants make feeble attempts to soothe them.
Indifferent to the flurry of activity around him, Amir Amin, a second year student, lies quietly on his bed staring blankly at the ceiling. His demeanour is calm, belying the unimaginable horror he witnessed that black Tuesday when Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan decided to ‘take revenge’ from unsuspecting schoolchildren of Army Public School.
Doctors have barred media interviews of those injured patients who survived the deadliest assault in the country’s history. Even if interviews were allowed, Amir is in too great a shock to speak.
‘Come get me’
His older brother Waqar Amin sits by his side, grateful that his brother survived. Recalling the events of Tuesday, Waqar tells The Express Tribune that Amir called him and told him someone had invaded the school. “He kept on repeating one sentence: Come get me, they are firing and killing students,” says Waqar.
According to Waqar, Amir and his class fellows were inside a hall when the militants entered and began firing at the panicked teenagers. Amir was shot multiple times and lost consciousness.
“After half an hour, he might have regained consciousness and called me again. He said he was injured and was lying on the ground while all his classmates were dead and there was blood everywhere,” says Waqar.
An anxious Waqar waited outside the school building unable to go to his little brother’s aid. “No one was allowed to go near the building; when the army finally arrived I told the officials Amir’s location, they rescued him and shifted him to Lady Reading Hospital,” Waqar recalls.
Lost in the chaos
Amir is not the only member of the family to fall prey to the bloodthirsty militants. His brother Ishaq was also in the same college and he was nowhere to be found in the aftermath of the attack as the family searched frantically.
“Ishaq was missing because he had been shifted to Combined Military Hospital. We found him on Wednesday. He is critically injured and is in the intensive care unit,” Waqar says. According to the relieved brother, despite being badly injured Amir and Ishaq were fortunate to survive because the militants shot most of the students in the head, probably to save bullets.
“The animals killed two teachers and set their bodies on fire, some even stabbed students when they ran out of ammunition,” claims a relative. “One of them killed the children and threw their bodies from the roof. That animal was the first to be shot by the army commandoes.”
Echoing the view of every person right now, he says the boys were lucky to survive such an onslaught but whether they would ever be able to live normal lives again after witnessing their teachers, class fellows and friends slaughtered in cold blood is impossible to even consider. “They can’t even go to sleep at night without sedatives.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2014.