Parents of school attack victims criticise Shuhada Forum

PESHAWAR: Parents of several martyrs of the Army Public School attack have said that some people were using the Shuhada Forum even though it had no mandate of all the aggrieved parents.
A group of parents on Saturday held a meeting and took notice of the activities of the Shuhada Forum claiming to be representative of all the parents. They asked the government and military authorities not to consider a group of individuals as representative of all the bereaved families.
They asked the government and the military to form a proper forum with representatives of the provincial and federal governments and the army along with a focal person for addressing the complaints and grievances of the parents.
Those who attended the meeting ?included Tufail Khattak, Abdul Wahid Qadri, Aslam Qureshi, Khalid Shakil, Aftab Khan, Omar Muzzamil, etc. They decided to call a meeting of all the parents in Peshawar on Monday or Tuesday to discuss ways and means and chalk out a future strategy. “We have no political agenda and don’t expect any ?benefit from the government. We are devastated by the loss of our loving children and don’t want people to use their blood for their vested interests,” one of the aggrieved fathers, Tufail Khattak told the meeting.
The parents said initially they had formed the Shuhada Forum to collectively work and plead the case of the parents with the government. However, they complained that some members of the forum started using it for their own agenda. “It was agreed during the first meeting that all the parents would be taken into confidence before meeting ?with any government or military official or any political figure. Also, the forum was supposed to inform all the parents about their meetings and other developments. But certain people, including some who aren’t even parents, hijacked this forum and started using it for their vested interest, which isn’t acceptable to us,” said a joint statement issued by the parents.
They complained that some members of the forum first held a meeting with Corps Commander Lt Gen Hidayatur Rahman, then Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and now called on Governor Mahtab Ahmad Khan but all the parents weren’t informed. “This is responsibility of the government and military authorities to form a forum and appoint a focal person,” the statement said.
Also, they said they did not want to talk only about the parents of the martyred students.
“Besides our children, some other people including the staff members were also martyred and some of them are very poor,” said Tufail Khattak, who lost his 14-year old Sher Shah Khattak in the APS attack.