PESHAWAR: As outrage and grief over the Peshawar school massacre continued to pour in from across the world, the students of different educational institutions here have put up an encouraging demand to the government to build a school in the name of every student killed or wounded in the Dec 16 attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar.

The students of universities, colleges and schools organised a Taleemi Dharna (educational sit-in) near the Peshawar Press Club on Friday to press for their demand. “Our educational sit-in will continue till acceptance of our demand,” a student of the University of Peshawar, Mohammad Salman Yousafzai, told Dawn.

He said that the schools should be constructed in the native towns and villages of the victim students. Taimur Kamal, Waqas Ahmed, Shafiq Gigyani and Wasiullah Khalil of the different educational institutions were leading the sit-in.

Mr Yousafzai, who was one of the organisers of the sit-in, said that only condemnation after each terrorist act was not sufficient. He said that the sit-in was not against the army or the government rather they were demanding from the state to construct a school or library in the name of each of the victims of the horrific incident occurred inside the Army Public School (APS), Peshawar.

Students at ‘Taleemi Dharna’ say this should be the state’s response to terrorists

Another organiser of the sit-in said that they had been condemning the terrorist acts since 2004, but that bore no fruit. He said that the state should give an immediate response to the terrorists by constructing schools on their demand. “If a school is already available in the village or area of the victim student, the government should construct a library there,” he said.

The angry students had also displayed placards at the sit-in inscribed with slogans like “For how long we will be killed”, etc. “We don’t need only identity cards issued by the state. The state should also ensure other rights of the citizens given in the Constitution,” one of the organisers said.

The students at the sit-in said that they were demanding from the state to take revenge of their colleagues from terrorists in the shape of constructing schools. They said that killing of students was the worst example of terrorism.

Central general secretary of Awami National Party Mian Iftikhar Hussain, MPA Syed Jaffar Shah and civil society activists, including Said Alam Mehsud, Arshid Haroon and Ms Rakhshanda Naz also participated in the sit-in. They vowed to support the students in their cause of constructing schools in the name of the victims of Dec 16 militant attack on the APS.

Published in Dawn December 20th , 2014