APS tragedy: SC orders forming commission to probe incident

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday ordered the formation of a commission to probe the 2014 Army Public School attack. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the suo motu case of the APS attack. The bench directed that the commission will be headed by a senior judge of the high court and will submit its report to the top court within six weeks. Further, the chief justice ordered that the commission along with investigation officers, should meet the victims' relatives and address their concerns. Justice Nisar also addressed the mothers of the victims present in the courtroom and said, "I want to ask you for forgiveness. I had given a verbal order earlier but could not issue a final one as the Peshawar Registry bench hearing the case had been dissolved." The chief justice had taken suo motu notice of the case during a trip to Peshawar earlier this year. In May, the chief justice had ordered formation of a judicial commission on the APS tragedy. On December 16, 2014, terrorists stormed the army-run school and killed around 150 people, including more than 130 students, in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Pakistan's history. The incident shook the country and resulted in the formation of a National Action Plan (NAP) to stem extremism and terrorism from the country, as well as the creation of military courts to try 'hardcore' terrorists. The heinous attack on schoolchildren followed intensification of the military's campaign against terrorists of all hue and colour, chasing and wiping them out from the country's urban centres to far-flung rural areas.