The Supreme Court of Pakistan will hear on Oct 5 a suo motu case related to the 2014 Peshawar Army Public School (APS) carnage which had left 144 persons, including 122 students, martyred. Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken notice of the issue in April this year when during his visit to Peshawar several of the parents of deceased students had approached him and requested him to redress their grievances.

Subsequently, on May 9, 2018, a SC bench headed by the chief justice ordered an inquiry into the occurrence through a judicial commission comprising a judge of the Peshawar High Court. It ordered that the commission, whose member should be appointed by the PHC chief justice, should complete the inquiry within two months of its formation.

One of the aggrieved fathers, Advocate Ajoon Khan whose son Asfand Khan was also martyred in the occurrence, said that so far the judicial commission had not been constituted as the high court had not received the order of the apex court.

He said that the present high court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth had assured them that the moment they would receive the apex court’s orders he would nominate a judge for the purpose.

The Supreme Court bench will hear two applications of the parents. One of the applications is related to constituting a judicial commission for fixing responsibility of negligence and tracing other facts related to the occurrence. In another application, the parents have requested the court to order amendments in the concerned FIR of the occurrence as the parents also now want to nominate the officials and then federal interior minister for “negligence”.

Ajoon Khan said that the school had already been charging them Rs500 per month as security fee, but they failed to provide a secure environment to their children.

Since the occurrence these parents have been putting forward different demands. However, both the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments were reluctant to accept their demands, including the one related to conducting a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Following the occurrence the parents came to know about a confidential letter through which the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) had on Aug 28, 2014, informed different provincial and federal authorities that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had made a plan to carry out terrorist activities against Army Public School and College and other educational institutions run by Pakistan Army and to kill maximum number of children of army officers to avenge the killings of their accomplices.

Ajoon Khan, who is also the president of APS Shuhada Forum, had filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court seeking directives of the court to the government for providing information to them in relation to the attack.

In their comments filed in the high court, the KP government and police had stated that after receiving a threat alert from the federal government in Aug 2014 about possible militant attack on education institutions run by the Army authorities, they had informed the management of all such schools, including the APS Peshawar.

The provincial home secretary and inspector general of police, in their joint comments, stated that during that occurrence the police had performed its duty as per its capacity in the given available resources.

They stated: “Threat Alert No 802 issued by NACTA on 28.08.2014 was communicated and disseminated to all concerned for appropriate measures on their part and requisite security measures were also taken by the Police Department in the given resources.” The officials stated: “Administration of all under threat schools/colleges including Army Public School and College, Warsak Road Peshawar Cantt, was duly informed about the threat alert. SDPO (sub divisional police officer) Cantt, and SHO Michni Gate held meeting with the principal on 01.09.2014 and sensitized her of the Threat Alert and precautionary measures required to be taken in light of an already circulated security advisory.”

They stated that there were 15 education institutions in Peshawar that were run by the Army authorities. Most of these institutions are operating in cantonment areas. The parents now want to know what steps were taken after the said confidential communication and who were the negligent officials who had not taken that “Threat Alert” seriously.

A TTP’s commander, Umer Mansoor, had claimed responsibility for this terrorist attack. The US government and Pakistan Army had confirmed that Umer Mansoor was killed in a US drone strike on July 9, 2016, in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

The APS tragedy had resulted into setting up of military courts through amendments made in the Constitution of Pakistan and the Army Act so as to try terrorists accused of carrying out terrorist activities in the name of religion.

These military courts had convicted seven persons in connection with APS attack. Six of them were sentenced to death whereas the seventh one was awarded life term. The Inter Services Public Relations had made public those convictions in a press release on Aug 13, 2015.

The parents are now pinning hopes on the apex court proceedings. “We want that responsibility of negligence shall be fixed. This will not return our children, but will provide a little solace to the aggrieved parents,” said Ajoon Khan.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2018