THE memorial to the martyrs of APS That fateful day Waleed, then a student of class eight, was in the auditorium and standing by the stage as he was a proctor. When the terrorists entered, he was one of the first to be shot — eight times. Six bullets in the face and one each in the arm and leg.
Despite such serious injuries, he managed to make his way out of the auditorium to finally collapse in a classroom. He was rescued and taken to the hospital while his family frantically kept searching for him. They finally found him in the hospital in the night.
For eight days he remained unconscious. He was one of the most severely wounded students and he remained in the hospital for four months. Waleed was then sent to the UK with his father for further treatment as his face needed intensive facial surgery and reconstruction.
He had lost his cheek, his upper jaw and teeth. He has undergone a number of surgeries and will be going back to UK for three more reconstruction and plastic surgeries.
This explains the slight wobble I noticed in his speech. And the fact that it is only ‘slight’ is a miracle, as is his recovery. Waleed has now rejoined his school and says that he is very happy to be back with his friends.
“Our class was lucky as among all the classes in the auditorium, we had the highest number of survivals, only four of my friends were martyred. At school we do think of our friends and that gives us the courage that we have to study for our friends and for the future of Pakistan.”
But after coming back from school, Waleed prefers to stay at home, mostly by himself. He started writing a diary as a way to express all that came into his mind, especially during the long hard months he had to pass during his recovery.
“Allah is the one who gives everyone courage. This incident has made all of us at APS Peshawar come closer. Everyone is reaching out to one another,” Waleed discloses. “The teachers are very friendly and supportive, they go out of their way to make sure that we don’t think of that dark day and become sad. Psychiatrists also visit the school and give counselling sessions to those who need it.”
At this point Waleed adds, “I wish our hospitals are made better equipped to handle all kinds of cases so that there is no need for sending injured like myself abroad for treatment. And I also wish the security at the school had been tightened earlier as it is now so that this incident would not have happened.”
Today, much has been done to make APS Peshawar a safer place and remove all traces of that dark December day. Security has been beefed up, the boundary wall fortified, the old auditorium demolished and a new one constructed, intensive repair and renovation work as been done. A memorial to the martyrs now stands to keep alive the memories of the loved one lost. Life is moving on.
Waleed is grateful for a second chance at life and wants to make the most of it. “I want to join the army or the air force. I pray for the army to become successful in crushing all forces working against our nation and that Zarb-e-Azb becomes successful,” he expresses.
To the nation this brave survivor has a message, one that we should all pay heed to: “I want the nation to stay united like it did after December 16. Let us not get back to harbouring our differences. Why wait for an incident as big and tragic as this to become united as a nation?”
Published in Dawn, Young World, December 19th, 2015