PESHAWAR: The sixth anniversary of the Army Public School Peshawar massacre was marked on Wednesday by civil society members and parents of the students, who were killed in the Dec 16, 2014, militant attack.

Amid tears and sobs, parents of the deceased expressed dissatisfaction with the findings of a judicial probe into the killing of 147 students and staff members, saying the inquiry commission didn’t fix responsibility for the attack.

They also criticised the government for not marking the anniversary.

The main anniversary function was held on APS campus, where parents of the martyred students and the school’s staff members showed up.

Another such event was held by the massacre victims’ parents and civil society members at the Shuhada-i-APS Memorial Library.

Parents express dissatisfaction with probe findings

Initially, they’re denied access to the premises prompting them to stage a sit-in on the busy Sher Shah Suri Road for an hour.

The protesters shouted slogans against the authorities claiming they’d been stopped from marking the anniversary inside the hall though they took a no objection certificate from the district administration a couple of days ago.

President of the Shuhada-i-Army Public School Forum Ajoon Khan told Dawn that the government had literally forgotten the APS students, whose massacre shook the entire world, as high-ups of the government and army didn’t participate in the event.

“Only a colonel of the Pakistan Army came to the school and placed a wreath at the memorial for massacre victims,” he said.

The forum comprises parents of the martyred students.

The parents also complained that neither chief minister and ministers nor high-ups from the army participated in the anniversary functions.

“We (parents) took out a protest procession from the APS campus and marched on different roads as protest,” Mr Ajoon said.

He demanded of the government to mark Dec 16 to remember the great sacrifice rendered by the APS students and staff members.

The forum president complained that Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated different development projects in the city on Wednesday but didn’t hold a ceremony in the memory of martyred children.

He said he thought that the prime minister was unaware of the massacre anniversary.

Regarding the judicial commission probe into the APS attack, Mr Ajoon said the commission had blamed security lapse for the massacre.

“If security lapse has been pointed out by the commission, then an FIR should be registered against high-ups of security agencies instead of making low-ranking officials scapegoat,” he said.

The participants of another programme at the Shuhada-i-APS Memorial Library after holding an hour sit-in on the busy road outside the library were allowed to enter the hall.

The programme was attended by parents of the martyred students, MNAs Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, chief of the Pakhtun Tahafuz Movement Manzoor Ahmed Pashteen and civil society members.

They held pictures of the martyred students.

“We had gathered to observe the anniversary of our children’s massacre but the district administration didn’t allow us despite taking NOC,” said Shah Mohammad, father of Umar Khan, who was killed in the 2014 APS attack.

Addressing the sit-in, he said it’s unfortunate that the government had denied them to observe the anniversary in the hall named after martyred students.

He said the state had been treating them in an inhuman manner.

Through a resolution, the participants rejected the judicial commission report alleging the probe has not fixed responsibility and suggested punishment for the culpable people.

They also shouted slogans, including ‘APS commission na manzoor’.

In the memory of the students, functions were also arranged in different districts of the province including Lower Dir, Mansehra, Buner, Kohat, Mohmand and Khyber.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2020