PHC summons investigation record of APS carnage

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the investigation officer of the Army Public School carnage to submit investigation record from December 16, 2014 to January 20, 2015.

As many as 147 lives were lost, 122 of them children, when militants attacked the Army Public School (APS) on December 16, 2014 in the deadliest attack in the country’s history.

A division bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Muhammad Younas Thaheem issued the directives to the Counter-Terrorism Department’s Deputy Superintendent of Police (Investigation) to submit the record.

The directive was issued in writ petitions filed by parents of APS martyrs. They have sought recording of statement in the First Information Report (FIR), making public the information about the carnage, judicial commission and action against those responsible for the APS attack.

During hearing, Justice Roohul Amin observed that the APS carnage was unforgettable for the whole nation. He said the court was not in a position to answer some questions raised by the parents.

“We will go to the extent in the case up to jurisdiction,” the judge remarked, adding it was not mentioned in the record submitted to the court as to what had been done by the investigation agency from December 16, 2014 to January 20, 2015.

Justice Roohul Amin asked if steps had been taken after receiving prior information about threats from militants to the school.

Justice Younas Thaheem said such important incidents could not be buried after declaring it a sensitive matter. “It is a sensitive matter for the whole nation,” the judge remarked.

Lawyers including Latif Afridi, Naveed Akhtar, Muhammad Ayaz Khan and Bilal Jan appeared for the parents of the APS martyrs.

Additional Advocate General Syed Sikandar Shah represented the provincial government.

During hearing, the petitioners’ lawyer, Naveed Akhtar, informed the bench that the FIR of the APS attack was lodged at the Matani Police Station and its station house officer was made a complainant in the case.

He said as per the police record, it had received a letter from Frontier Corps on January 20, 2015 for submission of all the investigation record from December 16, 2014 to January 20, 2015 in the military court. However, he said, parents of the APS martyrs did not know about the progress made in the case.

Petitioner Fazal Khan, father of slain student Umar Khan, made certain pleas, including the order for inclusion of the provisions of the law related to criminal negligence in the FIR registered at the CTD Police Station.

He said he had gone to the CTD Police Station several times to record his statement in the case but to no avail.

He added that the relevant investigation agencies had not recorded his statement because he held several senior officials responsible for the carnage.

Another petition was filed by Ajun Khan, father of APS martyr Asfand Khan. He sought the court’s orders for the federal and provincial governments to make public all information related to the APS carnage and the action taken by them after getting intelligence in August 2014 about the likely attack on the army-run school in Peshawar.

Ajun Khan sought judicial inquiry into the incident to fix responsibility for the negligence.

Asfand Khan’s mother told the bench that she and other bereaved families needed justice and wanted to know how the terrorist incident took place in a very sensitive area despite intelligence reports about the likelihood of the attack. She also called for judicial inquiry into the tragedy.

Ajun Khan claimed that on August 28, 2014, the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) in Islamabad had informed the provincial government and Fata additional chief secretary in writing that the commander of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in collaboration with other militant outfits, had planned to stage terrorist attack on the APS in Peshawar and other Pakistan Army-run educational institutions to kill the children of army officers and soldiers to avenge the killing of their activists.