PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday sought the records of the investigation of the counter terrorism department (CTD) into the 2014 terrorist attack on the Peshawar Army Public School, which had killed 144 people, mostly students.

Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani and Justice Younas Taheem issued the directives to additional advocate general Syed Sikander Shah, who informed the court that the CTD had conducted investigation into the carnage until Jan 20, 2015, when it was asked by the security forces to hand over all records to them for trials by a military court.

The bench ordered the production of the documents pertaining to the attack investigation from Dec 16, 2014, to Jan 20, 2015.

The court was hearing three different petitions pertaining to the 2014 attack.

Observes it’ll seek replies to questions raised in petitions on 2014 carnage

One of the petitions is filed by advocate Ajun Khan, father of slain student Asfand Khan, who has prayed the court to direct the federal and provincial governments to make public all the information related to the APS carnage and the action taken by them till date after receiving the information in Aug 2014 that the school would be attacked by terrorists.

Another petition is filed by advocate Fazal Khan, father of martyred student Omer Khan, requesting that his statement be recorded by the investigation agency in the case.

He has claimed that he personally went to the CTD police station several times for recording his statement but they declined to record the same.

The third petition is filed by freelance journalist Shahid Aurakzai who claimed that the FIR of the occurrence was registered by station house officer of Michni Gate police station Sher Ali Khan. He has asked how a single sketchy report could provide substance for investigating so many murders.

The bench fixed Jan 31 for next hearing of the cases observing that the APS incident was one of the most tragic occurrence taken place in the country.

Justice Roohul Amin observed that the APS massacre had left the entire country into a state of shock.

The bench observed that nothing was available on the record of the case about the investigation into the APS carnage.

It added that it would seek answers to questions involved in these petitions.

Advocates Abdul Lateef Afridi, Naveed Akhtar and Bilal Khan appeared for the petitioners and contended that the petitioners Ajun Khan and Fazal Khan were aggrieved persons as their children were martyred in the incident.

Naveed Akhter pointed out that both the petitioners had remained present outside the APS on the day of occurrence and they were witnesses to the incident. He added that despite that their statements had not been recorded by the investigation officer.

He argued that these petitioners had raised their voicer on each and every forum requesting that they should be provided information about the occurrence, but in vain. Their demands, he stated about holding a judicial inquiry into the incident had also not been accepted.

The counsel stated that the aggrieved parents had also filed application under the Right to Information Act for getting information about investigation in the case, but the government had turned down their request on the ground that it was a sensitive matter.

The AAJ Syed Sikander Shah stated that CTD had conducted investigation in the occurrence till Jan 20, 2015, when they had received a letter from the security forces directing to submit the record to them. He added that after receiving that letter the record pertaining to investigation was submitted to the security forces.

The petitioner Ajun Khan broke into tears before the bench stating that he was father of a martyr student but the government agencies had not been recording his statement. He added that they had been moving fro0m pillar to post to know facts about the incident, which had left hundreds of families devastated.

He has claimed that on Aug 28, 2014, through a letter, the National Counter Terrorism Authority had informed the provincial government and Fata additional chief secretary that the commander of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in collaboration with others had made a plan to carry out terrorist activities against APS and other educational institutions run by Pakistan Army to kill the maximum number of children of army officers and soldiers to avenge the killing of their accomplices.

The petitioner said necessary action to counter the threat was not taken by the administration.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2018