144 fruit trees planted in memory of APS martyrs

Islamabad : The third anniversary of barbaric attack on Army Public School in Peshawar three years ago in which 144 people including students and teachers were gunned down in the name of Islam by Taliban was remembered at Quaid-i-Azam University in a different worth-emulating way.

The students and faculty members of QAU planted 144 fruit trees, one for each martyr, at different places at the Campus including Bioinformatics and Pharmacy Departments, Central Library and QAU Nursery,

The funds for the activity were provided by Shehzadi S Khan, a Pakistani student studying in Canada. The idea was a brainchild of Hunain Mehdi and Zahid Yaqub Amir, MPhil students from School of Politics and International Relations who were moving spirit behind the activity participated by students, family members and gardeners from Horticulture Cell of the University.

Assistant Attorney General of Pakistan Azhar Hussain was the chief guest. He received seven bullets in the Taliban attack on district courts, Islamabad, in 2014 but he bravely fought death on ventilator and defeated it. He still has a bullet in his leg but this could not deter this recipient of Tamgha-e-Shujaat. He and his family planted plum, apricot and apple trees. He vowed to again resist the bigot religious extremists if they strike again. After planting a tree, Dr Waqar Shah, Dean of Social Sciences, QAU, said that the parents of the children killed in APC attack suffered a great loss and remembering them by planting trees was a correct and best step which despite being ‘Sadqa-e-Jaria’, also help us in combating environmental challenges which are becoming grave day by day. He also led the pray on the occasion.

Alumni Association of QAU also planted 40 guava, bottle-brush and ‘sukhchain’ trees in the foreign faculty houses on the occasion.