Unmasking the Menace: Target Killing and Terrorism Unveiled

December 16, 2014  is one of the darkestd days that will never fade from our minds. 1099 children with their spiritual leaders were present in the great seminary of APS Peshawar. It was 10.30 in the morning,

when six ruthless terrorists attacked.  They had started the war with a new generation joining the forces in the name of eradicating terrorists.  It was the first attack of its kind on any school in the history of the world, with highly trained terrorists targeting children and teachers as they entered the school building.  149 people including 132 innocent students between the ages of 8 and 18 were martyred. Nowhere in the world, terrorists have targeted innocent people in schools.  Thus, this incident became the worst example in the history of terrorism.

The terrorists had cut off the telephone lines as soon as they entered the school building, cut off communication so that no one could know, but less than 15 minutes had passed that helicopters were also flying in the air.  The commandos were inside the building and the army teams were there, because the children loved it.  The terrorists did not even have the illusion that the commandos would arrive so quickly, otherwise the terrorists were trying to kill everyone.  But the military commandos did not know where the terrorists were hiding, they also had to save the children, least something happen to an innocent person.  So first the school building was surrounded and then they advanced inside.  Within minutes, security agencies intercepted the terrorists' calls.

After being surrounded by commandos, the terrorists hid in the administration block, trying to shield some children. At that moment, gunshots were heard. One terrorist was killed while running near the auditorium. Another terrorist was killed.  The rest of the terrorists were hiding in the admin block. They were killed on the spot. The commandos ambushed the target and killed the four terrorists. Thus, 960 children and staff members were killed.  Was saved.  Later, while talking to (former) Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, the newcomers said, "Think of us as wounded soldiers, not children. Eliminate every single terrorist from our country." The determination and enthusiasm of the children was palpable.

Introduction to the martyrs

The face of Tahira Qazi, the principal of the school, who stood up to the ruthless terrorists, remains in our eyes. Even today, people are paying homage to her.  She was one of the teachers and staff who were martyred in terrorism.  She was a senior and experienced teacher.  He was also awarded the "Principal of the Year" award for outstanding achievement.  The government awarded her Sitara-e-Shujaat in 2015. According to

eyewitnesses, Tahira Qazi helped protect the children, called some parents and urged them to take their children. Shehnaz Naeem (Head of Computer Science) was shot at that time.  She was beaten to death as she tried to get all the children out of school.  She stood in front of the attackers till her last breath. Banesh Pervez's sister wrote, "She was the mother of three daughters.  The youngest is only three months old.  My sister was in the computer lab when the shots started firing.  They tried to close the door to save the students but shots were fired from the door.  Later, all the students in his class were martyred.  Among the teachers, Saeed Khan and Hafsa are also among the martyrs.  He was also considered as an expert teacher. The husband of Army Public School lecturer Sofia Amjad is a lawyer.  Sofia and her husband were busy preparing for their daughter's wedding when their daughter died.  Muhammad Baqir, the son of Ustad Farhat Jafari, attends Army Public School, but he is not in this world.

 Killing  of intelligent students

 The little martyrs were the most intelligent and distinguished students.  After entering the classroom, the ruthless and ruthless terrorists also asked who is the most intelligent, which student comes first, he was martyred first.  Their relationships were questioned, questions were asked about the future.  All the martyrs passed with distinction marks, all of them were among the best students of the school, they were also distinguished in Sira, their personality had everything that a father or mother could desire.  They all wanted to be doctors or engineers.

Among the young martyrs are Ahmad Elahi, Rafiq Bangash, Noorullah Durrani, Sher Shah, Asad Aziz, Uzair Khan, Muhammad Ali, Azan Toriley and Amish Salman.  According to friends, a student, Ahmad Elahi, reached the ambulance that day, but went back inside the school to save his younger brother's life. Our soldiers had already rescued his brother, but  Ahmad Elahi did not return again. Among the martyrs, Mobin Shahid Afridi was a promising student of the school. The assailants shot him in the head. The assailant used to say, "You want to be a doctor.  Journalist Manzoor Ali was dear to him.  The desire to become a doctor and an engineer was still lingering in his heart, but the ruthless terrorists snatched that desire away.  Muhammad Yaseen, the only child of his parents, was always one of the top five students in his class and wanted to enroll in a major UK university.  The assailants martyred him in the school auditorium while he was listening to a teacher's lecture on medical aid.  Aziz, 14-year-old muezzin, says he was ashamed of the camera.  He was not a child who wore big fashionable goggles, or gel in his hair to show off, but his only desire was to work hard and become a successful man in the future.  He lived in Peshawar with his grandmother for a good education.  Student Hasnain's two cousins ​​were at school with him and he managed to return alive.

 Background of the incident

Terrorist activities were on the rise in our beloved country till 2014.  Terrorists equipped with the latest weapons and technology were made more powerful by the patronage of some external elements. They could intervene in any country, which is why even in a country like the United States, the military establishment  Were alert  Under the "National Action Plan", the army sided with politicians in rooting out terrorist elements.  Large terrorist networks were rapidly disintegrating. Some elements fled and sought refuge abroad and from there began to guide terrorists in our country.  That is why the terrorists intended to file a case against the new generation joining the army, but in the determination created after the attack, they lost their lives. Today, their name and mark have disappeared.

On June 8, 2014, 10 terrorists armed with rocket launchers and grenades attacked the Karachi airport, killing 18 civilians.  The terrorists spread in two groups of five in the cargo terminal.  They tried to hijack a plane which was foiled.  They also damaged the plane.  Therefore, in June 2014, the Pakistan Army came behind the civil administration for counter-terrorism.  Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Operation Khyber (1) were underway in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. North Waziristan was a hotbed of militants. Civil administration in North Waziristan was weak, so the army also took over the task of suppressing terrorists.  Terrorists targeted the military school. But December 16, 2014 has become an important day in the history of Pakistan in terms of counter-terrorism. This is the day after which we conducted operations against terrorists with full force.  Intelligence agencies were behind the civilian government for counter-terrorism.  Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched on June 15, 2014 to eradicate terrorists.  In which thousands of terrorists were killed, the ban on death penalty for terrorists was lifted. Dozens of terrorists were waiting to be executed after the ban was imposed by the government. They were also hanged one by one.  ۔

The 21st Amendment to the Constitution also empowered military courts to take action against civilian terrorists.  Operation Zarb-e-Azb killed thousands of terrorists in just a few months and evacuated 90 percent of North Waziristan.  That is why the terrorists, under the guidance of their fellow terrorists, tried to martyr the children of those belonging to the security agencies but failed to achieve their goal.

 Who were the attackers?

The TTP's brutal beasts included a Chechen and an Afghan, with remote control in Afghanistan, and a total of 27 facilitators.  Not one of them survived.  Sajjad Jan, a facilitator, was killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on December 26, 2014, within ten days of the attack.  Security forces beheaded four fellow terrorists who were hanged on December 2, 2015, less than a year later.  Another accomplice of the attackers was hanged in 2016 after an appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court.  The mastermind of the attack on APS School Peshawar (Omar Khorasani) was killed in Afghanistan in the October 18, 2017 Kodron attack carried out at the behest of Pakistan.  Pakistan has made several contacts with the United States and the Afghan government to arrest Mullah Fazlullah, a terrorist in Afghanistan.  The terrorist, who was hiding in Afghanistan on June 14, 2018, was also killed in a US drone strike.  Thus, all the characters who dyed their hands with the blood of innocents in APS Peshawar went to hell one by one.

Judicial commission report

Army Public School: Attack declared 'security failure', Supreme Court orders release of judicial commission report

A judicial

commission set up to investigate the 2014 militant attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar has called the incident a security failure and said it was a threat to our security.  The system is in question.

 It should be noted that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered the release of the report of the judicial commission set up six years ago to probe the militant attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

The commission was headed by Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan of the Peshawar High Court and sent a more than 500-page report on the Army Public School tragedy to the Chief Justice of Pakistan in July 2020.

 What more is said in the report?

The Commission of Inquiry has also raised questions about the security of the school, while in addition to the reduction in the number of security guards after the threats, there has also been a lack of non-cooperation in the right places.

It should be noted that the security of the Army Public School is the responsibility of the Army, however, it is not necessary that the Army's own personnel be assigned to it.

The report said the militants entered the school from behind without any resistance.  The report says that if the security guards had resisted, there would not have been so many casualties.

The report also mentions that extremists from Afghanistan entered Pakistan in the form of refugees and the facilities provided to these extremists by locals cannot be forgiven in any way.

The report says that if one's own blood is betrayed, the consequences are very dangerous, and no agency can prevent such attacks when the enemy is from within.

The report mentions how the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NCTA), the national counter-terrorism agency, issued a general alert on military bases targeting military officers and their families.  Launches crackdown on militants

The report also noted that the APS incident had put an end to the army's operations against militants.

Order to make public the Attorney General's comments

Earlier, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard a suo motu notice regarding the Army Public School tragedy, during which the court also ordered to make public the Attorney General's comments on the commission's report.  Was

The court said that it should be determined from above who was responsible for the incident.

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed remarked that the security agencies should have been informed about the planning and conspiracy of the attack.

The court said that even in such security, the people are not safe, so it is a matter of concern.  The court said that no one provided any information about the cause of the incident, which is unfortunate.

During the hearing, the parents of the students who were killed in the incident told the court that the incident was not of terrorism but of 'target killing'.

The Chief Justice remarked that it has been a tragedy in Pakistan that in any case, those below are caught while the elders are not even questioned.

He said that at least in the case of Army Public School this should not happen and the people above should be caught, whoever has been found guilty of negligence in duties.

He said the incident had saddened the entire nation.

"They succeeded in achieving their goal."

The parents of the children killed in the incident said they were roaming around like living corpses and wanted those responsible for the children's deaths to be punished in their own lives.

In his remarks, the Chief Justice, without naming anyone, said that they had succeeded in achieving the goal they wanted.

The Chief Justice remarked that when the people are not safe, how can such a big country and system be run.

He said the government should take steps to prevent such incidents in the future.

Not satisfied with the official investigation, parents

The parents of the children killed in the incident say they want to fight their children's case in the light of the commission's report.

Talking to media persons after the hearing, he said that he had no interest in who fired the shots, but only to determine the real culprits.

He said his children could not return but that the move would protect other children.

He said he was not satisfied with the manner in which the rulers had conducted an investigation into the incident and would consider the next step if they were not satisfied with the court's decision.

He said a comprehensive investigation into the incident was being called to prevent any such incident in the future.

How did the commission prepare the report?

The commission recorded the statements of 132 people, including children injured in the incident and parents of those killed, including 101 civilians and 31 security personnel and officers.

The commission of inquiry was set up by former Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar in 2018 at the request of the parents of students and teachers killed in a militant attack on the Army Public School in 2014.

The Army Public School on Warsak Road in Peshawar was attacked by armed militants on December 16, 2014, targeting students, teachers and staff members.  The attack killed 147 people and injured several others.  The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to the Pakistan Army Public Relations Department, the group that attacked the Army Public School consisted of 27 members, nine of whom were killed and 12 were arrested.

Pakistani authorities have convicted several people involved in the incident in military courts, but the parents of the dead children say their children went to an army-run school in a cantonment.  He was not on the battlefield and he regularly paid his children's safety fees to the school administration, so how did this happen, at whose behest did it happen and who was the result of his negligence?

The parents have been demanding that responsibility be established in this regard and those whose negligence or carelessness has led to this attack be punished.