close
Thursday March 28, 2024

KP to rename more schools after APS martyrs

107 state-run schools already renamed

By Mushtaq Yusufzai
March 08, 2015
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakht unkhwa government which recently renamed 107 state-run schools after the martyred schoolchildren of the Army Public School is preparing to rename more such schools in the coming weeks.
“We will rename other schools within a few weeks, but after consultations with their parents,” Education Minister Atif Khan said.
He added that in the first phase, 107 schools in the province had been renamed after the slain students.
“We had made a commitment with parents of the students who were ruthlessly gunned down by terrorists inside their school to rename ?the public sector schools after them. It is an effort to remember sacrifices of those students and the courage of their parents and other family members,” Atif Khan explained.
He said that before the decision, they held meetings with the parents and sought their opinion about the idea.
“Since the students belong to various areas of the province and some are from other provinces, we will rename schools in their native towns to remind local people of their sacrifice,” the minister said.
“This small effort will remind us and our next generations about this sad incident in the school and ruthless killing of the innocent children there,” the education minister said.
According to the government, 153 people, including 143 students, were killed and more than 200 other students suffered bullet injuries ?when a group of six suicide bombers armed with sophisticated weapons attacked the military-run school in Peshawar on December 16 last year.
The terrorists first began indiscriminate fire at the students and later detonated their explosive jackets when the army troops arrived at the school.
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), headed by Maulana Fazlullah, later claimed responsibility for the attack and termed it reaction to the military offensive launched by the security forces in North Waziristan, which was considered a stronghold of al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
Most of the parents wanted schools in their native areas to be renamed after their children, while some preferred Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“I heard some good news today as the government sought my opinion and I suggested naming a high school in my native Daag Ismail Khel village of Nowshera district after my son Sher Shah,” said Mohammad Tufail Khattak.
He said his late son was a student of grade-10 in the same school. “It will remind the people in coming years that these were the students who had laid down their lives for safe and better future of other students,” he remarked.
Tufail Khattak said his son was considered one of the brilliant students in the school who wanted to become a journalist and play his role in changing the thinking of the people through his work.
“I had two sons and both were in the same auditorium when the terrorists entered and started killing the students. I lost my elder son Sher Shah but my younger son escaped and remained safe,” he said.