Affected families want details of APS attack probe

PESHAWAR: The police and the Counter-Terrorism Department are yet to prepare a detailed report of the December 16 terrorist attack on the Army Public School and College in which around 150 persons, including 135 schoolchildren, were killed.
The case was lodged in the Counter-Terrorism Department of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police the next day after the attack while evidences were collected by the Forensic Department on the third day of the incident.
The cellular phone data and other details of the attackers were collected but no detailed report has been compiled or presented to the federal or the provincial government. According to the probe conducted so far, at least three of the attackers were having cellular phones that were used for communication with each other as well as their top two commanders across the border in Afghanistan.
Parents and relatives of the slain schoolchildren and other staff members on Tuesday took up the matter with the provincial government that they should be told about the progress in the attack like other high-profile cases.
Provincial Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani, however, said the report would take another 15 days to be compiled. He said by then the progress in the investigation would be shared with the parents.
Inspector General of Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Nasir Khan Durrani recently claimed that progress had been made in the case. There were reports that three of the facilitators of the attackers were killed a couple of days after the attack in Peshawar and Khyber Agency.
Many parents want to be taken into confidence about the progress in the case as they have lost their sons, daughters and other loved ones in the incident. Their sacrifices have been eulogized all over the country. The families of Class-IV employees killed in the attack on the army-run school are also looking towards the government for financial support.
The search and strike operations have been intensified all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially Peshawar, after the attack in which hundreds of suspects were rounded up. However, most of those arrested were later released after they were found innocent.