Judicial body visits APS Peshawar before finalising report

PESHAWAR: Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, who is conducting judicial inquiry into the Army Public School (APS) attack, has visited the school to inspect the place of occurrence before finalising his report.

Imranullah Khan, the focal person for the Judicial Commission, told The News that two days ago Justice Muhammad Ibrahim visited the school to inspect the hall and other places where the terrorists indiscriminately shot at the students, teachers and other staff.

He said the head of the commission inspected the places of occurrence in the school along with members of his team consisting of commission’s registrar Imanullah Wazir, Ajmal Tahir and Imranullah.

The commission was briefed about the incident by Brigadier Shakirullah and Brigadier Aamir, he added.

Imranullah said that the time had been extended twice for finalising the inquiry report.

First the commission sought time for recording statements of a large number of parents and injured students, he said. He added the time had been extended the second time on the request of Ministry of Defence.

He said the Judicial Commission had sent a questionnaire to the Ministry of Defence for seeking written reply from it and for providing certain necessary documents required before finalising the report.

Earlier, the Judicial Commission had extended its time by two weeks for recording of the statements. It had been given six weeks by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for completing the inquiry and submission of the report.

Imranullah said the commission had recorded statements of 93 parents of martyred students as well as the injured students and school staff, including teachers.

He said the Judicial Commission had also recorded statements of the investigation officers of Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD).

The CTD has already submitted record and investigation report about the APS attack to the commission.

As many as 147 people, including 132 students were martyred in the horrendous attack by six militants affiliated with the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on December 16, 2014.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, had on October 5 ordered formation of the Judicial Commission during his visit to Supreme Court’s Peshawar Registry after hearing grievances of the parents, mostly mothers, of the martyred students. The parents had requested formation of the Judicial Commission to investigate the APS attack and fix responsibility.

The Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, Waqar Ahmad Seth, then notified Justice Muhammad Ibrahim as head of the one-member Judicial Commission.