Army Public School tragedy

PESHAWAR: Despite the passage of four years of the Army Public School (APS) tragedy and claims of the top leadership of the country, both the federal and provincial governments could not take practical step for the rehabilitation of the families of the martyred students. This is how some members of the bereaved families expressed their views while talking to The News on the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attack at the APS Peshawar.

As many as 147 persons, including 132 students, of the APS were martyred on December 16, 2014. They maintained that though the APS tragedy changed the government’s policy and united the nation, the rulers could not make any legislation and create a single seat for their children in professional institutions i.e. medical colleges and engineering universities. They complained that the federal and provincial governments did not bother to inquire about the wellbeing of the remaining siblings of the martyred students.

They said the same was the case with all those who lost their near and dears in the bomb blasts in Meena Bazaar and Qissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar and in Parachinar, Waziristan and various parts of the province. The affected families, they said, were still waiting for the compensations announced for them. “We need rehabilitation, not financial compensation,” said the father of a martyred student. He added his entire family was still were passing through trauma. “Our children are getting treatment for depression and trauma and majority of the children need proper care and consolation as the tragedy has affected their life,” he added. Tehseenullah, who lost two sons in the APS tragedy, said he was still struggling for admission of his daughter to the medical college as both the federal and provincial governments failed to extend any assistance to him in this regard. He complained that the claim of allocating quota for the siblings of martyred students could not be materialised. “Had there been a quota for the siblings of the martyred students, I would have enrolled my daughter at the medical college,” he argued. Tariq Jan, who also lost two sons in the tragedy, too has been struggling for admission of his daughter to a medical college for the last four years.

A martyred student, Yasirullah hailing from Chitral had been selected for the cadet college a few days before his martyrdom at the APS. His father, who retired from the Chitral Scouts, tried but could not get a seat in the cadet college for his second son. Tufail Khattak, who lost his son Sher Shah in the tragedy, said that like others his surviving son, Ahmad Shah, was also getting treatment even now. He said the government schools were named after the martyred students, but no facility was provided to the schools and no function could be arranged there.

These schools, he said, should have been declared as special but they lack basic necessities even today. “Organising a function and according respect to the martyrs was not a difficult job.