PESHAWAR: Participants of a meeting on Saturday asked the government to take immediate measures for psychological rehabilitation and best medical treatment of the schoolchildren and other employees who survived the attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar, so that they could restart their normal life.

The ‘Fateha Khawani and Taqreeb-i-Dua’ was organised at the press club here by the 16/12 Action Forum, a grouping of various civil society organisations, to pay respects to the APS victims.

Notable among the speakers included Dr Said Alam Mehsud, Gul Nawaz Mohmand, Sana Ejaz, Taimoor Kamal, Tariq Afghan, Aimal Khattak and Shahab Khattak.

The speakers asked the government to establish education institutions, libraries, and education resource centres after the names of the APS victims. 

The participants also offered prayers for the departed souls and said that the tragic incident had united the nation against terrorism.

They said the sacrifices of innocent schoolchildren won’t go waste and the whole country in general and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular would have durable peace.

The speakers appreciated the government and armed forces for their resolve to eliminate terrorism, and asked the government to implement the National Action Plan in real sense.

The participants also demanded steps for ending bloodshed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, and asked army to intensify its ongoing operations against terrorists and destroy save heavens of militants in the tribal region.

Earlier, the members of action forum took out a rally from the historic Chowk Yaadgar, made stopover at Qissa Khawani bazaar to pay tributes to the victims of a suicide blast there, and then marched up to the press club. They were holding placards and banners inscribed with demands for early arrest of the killers and shouted slogans against terrorism.

Meanwhile, residents of Sikandarpura area demanded of the provincial government to name the government city district girls degree college after the name of Sofia Hijab, a teacher of the Army Public School who died in the December 16 carnage.

Speaking at a meeting to pay respects to the carnage victims here on Saturday, the people showered praise on the slain teacher for sacrificing her life in the line of duty.

They said that the best way of acknowledging the supreme sacrifice of the teachers and students of APS was to name schools and colleges after their names. “It would be a befitting answer to the perpetrators of the tragedy that all those who were killed on December 16 were rather immortalised,” they said.

Published in Dawn January 25th , 2015

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