K & P

Justice for APS: Shuhada Ghazi Forum gives 24-hour deadline to government

Demands killers be brought to justice, threatens protests outside CM House, SC

Our Correspondent March 16, 2015

The protest rally started at Peshawar Press Club, passed through Saddar Road and culminated at Stadium Chowk. PHOTO: PPI

PESHAWAR: Three months after the tragic Army Public School massacre, relatives of students and staff killed, students and social activists still await answers about the brutal act. At a protest against the federal government and security forces on Monday, the protesters gave the government a 24-hour deadline to bring the perpetrators of the terrorist attack to justice.

The protest rally started at Peshawar Press Club, passed through Saddar Road and culminated at Stadium Chowk. The protesters were holding placards and banners carrying pictures of the slain schoolchildren and demanded Nishan-e-Haider awards for them.

Another protest call was made for outside the CM House on March 19.

Before the rally started, Shuhada Ghazi Forum General Secretary Ajun Khan said, “Three months have passed but we still don’t have any clue of the killers’ identities and their accomplices.” Khan said the Peshawar corps commander is responsible for the security lapse which led to the deaths of hundreds of students.

The forum members gave a 24-hour ultimatum to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to expose all “internal and external elements” involved in the heinous crime or the forum will protest outside the CM House and the Supreme Court in Islamabad.

“In our country, justice cannot be secured without protests,” said Khan, “We will contact the United Nations for justice if our own government cannot provide justice to the victims’ families even after protests.” The families of deceased children refused to accept the highest civilian award, the Tamgah-e-Shujaat, and demanded the highest military award, Nishan-e-Haider instead.

According to the families they would accept no other award and if the government needs to amend the Constitution to award the children and teachers Nishan-e-Haider, it should do so. On December 16, last year, armed militants laid siege to the army-run school for several hours and killed 151 people, most of them schoolchildren.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2015.

COMMENTS (8)

KHAN | 9 years ago | Reply Growing without a father in a society like pakistan is a difficult thing. Pain might abate with the passage of time, however one has to abdicate his childhood. Sudden death of my father when I was in my intermediate shook me. I don’t know was it a blessing or a calamity for us. Moreover we had to take difficult decions in life. Sacrifices are demanded by family members.One has to live in a gloom. Sometimes you try hard to dispel that gloom. Personality is adulterated by society where people are living with a concept of survival of the fittest. One becomes acrimonious when he sees that opportunities are for the rich and powerful

sad sad sad | 9 years ago | Reply People, stop showing your delusional wisdom. Let them protest. Loss of ones child tears one apart. Such a pain does not fade away with time. It actually increases. Years from now, these people will look at young gentlemen and it will remind them of their own kids. Please shut up, will yall?