ISLAMABAD: The Awami National Party (ANP) endorsed on Thursday a demand by grieving families for a judicial probe into terrorist attacks on Peshawar’s Army Public School and Bacha Khan University in Charsadda.

Talking to Dawn, ANP’s information secretary Zahid Khan said if a judicial commission could be set up to investigate the killing of Osama bin Laden why such a commission could not be formed on the two incidents.

But both federal and provincial governments were not paying any heed to a just demand, he added.

The ANP leader criticised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for imposing a fine and registering cases against school administrations for not taking adequate security measures.

“Providing security to educational institutions is the responsibility of the government, so it should fulfil it instead of sending notices to respected teachers,” he added.

“Closing down educational institutions is a cowardly act. The government’s act of bowing down before the enemies of education and terrorists is the main cause of growing disappointment among people.”

Mr Khan recalled that despite facing worst terrorism his party’s government in KP took action against terrorists and prevented them from targeting educational institutions. “The ANP stood before terrorists like a rock,” he said.

When asked what his party would do if the government did not set up the judicial commission, he said it would contact other opposition parties to raise the issue on every forum and devise a joint strategy.

He said the ANP was supporting the demand without being in the forefront and it had not taken any step to mobilise the masses because it did not want to provide an opportunity to rulers to accuse them of doing politics on terrorism.

He, however, said if the government did not pay any heed, they would definitely look for other options.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2016