Another injured APS student passes away

PESHAWAR: Another student injured in the December 16 terrorist attack on the Army Public School (APS) lost his more than two-month battle for life at a military-run hospital here on Saturday.
Ishaq Amin who had received head injury and was hit by bullets in his cheek and arm passed away at the Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar. His brother Amir Amin was also injured in the gruesome attack and was shifted to Karachi a day earlier with other wounded students for treatment at the Aga Khan Hospital. Their father, Amin, who is a resident of Nauthia locality in Peshawar Saddar, was serving abroad until a few years ago.
“Ishaq Amin was shifted to home a few days ago but was taken back to the hospital after his condition deteriorated,” stated a family friend Mukhtiar Ali. The funeral prayers were offered late Saturday.
Almost 150 people, including over 135 schoolchildren, were killed when militants stormed the Army Public School on Warsak Road on December 16 last year. Apart from the students, a number of teachers, clerks, guards, gardener, sweeper and other support staff were killed, or wounded, in the dreadful attack.
The attackers opened indiscriminate fire on children, teachers and other school employees, hurling hand grenades and detonating explosives tied to their bodies in more than seven hour long violence.
The attack on the school is considered to be one of the worst terror attacks in the country’s history. Following the attack, the winter vacations of the educational institutions were extended and the security of all the private and public sector schools, colleges and universities was beefed up.
A number of those injured in the attack are still being treated at various hospitals of Peshawar and Karachi. One student, Ahmad Nawaz, was recently sent by the government to the UK for treatment. Many among injured in the attack have received complicated injuries and need proper treatment.
The parents and family members of those martyred and injured have formed the “Shuhada Forum” to continue pressure on the government for properly investigating the school attack, tracking down the masterminds of the assault and highlighting the rights of the families of the martyred and injured students.
According to a member of the Shuhada Forum, the condition of another student Waleed is also critical. There are reports that some members of the forum are planning to constitute a team of lawyers to lodge an FIR in the case against the prime minister and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister.
Many on the social media have been asking the government as to what has been done to provide justice to the families of the school carnage victims and also those who suffered in the terrorist attacks on the Hayatabad Imamia Mosque in Peshawar and the recent Shikarpur, Rawalpindi and Lahore attacks.
Apart from search and strike operations by the police in Peshawar and rest of the province, military operations are underway in the tribal areas to go after the militants and their facilitators.
There were reports that at least three facilitators of the attackers were killed in separate operations in Peshawar and Khyber Agency within a couple of days after the attack. Actions are also underway under the National Action Plan to go after extremist elements all over the country under the supervision of the apex committee, which is chaired by the governor and include the corps commanders Peshawar, the chief minister, chief secretary and the heads.