As the country marked the sixth anniversary of the Peshawar Army Public School (APS) carnage on Wednesday, politicians – both from government and opposition – paid homage to the families that suffered in the heinous 2016 attack in which 131 school children and 10 others lost their lives.

The attack had shocked the entire nation as terrorists stormed inside the school and fired at children who were attending classes at the time.

Recalling the incident, President Dr Arif Alvi said it had brought the nation to tears. "These flowers laid their lives & brought focus of the nation to suppress terrorism with all its might. I thank them," he said.

Speaking at a hospital inauguration ceremony in Peshawar, Prime Minister Imran Khan started his speech remembering the dark day, and recalled how the tragedy united the country after which "we were able to defeat" the scourge of terrorism in Pakistan.

"Today, six years ago, the nation was shocked & grieved by the extreme act of terrorism against children & teachers of APS; & the nation came together with a resolve to take on those responsible.

"We remain determined & are moving forward in fulfilling this commitment to the nation," the prime minister tweeted later in the day.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said Dec 16, 2014, was not a "dark day" only for Pakistan but also for the whole of humanity. Sharing an old picture with one of the survivors of the attack, he said he remembered the "bravery of the boy whose courage was intact even after [what was for him] the end of the world".

Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said the nation would never forget the APS attack and vowed to "fight against the extremist mindset that feeds the hate and violence of terrorism".

Every year, the entire nation's grief and wounds are reopened on Dec 16, said Information Minister Shibli Faraz. He urged the people to vow that they would not "allow gains made against terrorism to be wasted at any cost".

The minister said that the country's armed forces, all law enforcement agencies, and the people had given a lot of sacrifices in the fight against terrorism and paid tribute to them.

Speaker of the National Assembly Asad Qaiser also vowed to "continue to fight until the scourge of terrorism and extremism would be rooted out from our country".

PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari demanded that those responsible for the attack be punished, saying that until they were brought to justice, the APS incident would continue to "haunt the nation's conscience".

Bilawal expressed solidarity with the parents of the martyred children and paid tribute to them. He said it was the responsibility of the government and the state to prove that terrorists had been "weakened".

Terming the incident "heart-rending", PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said Dec 16 marked the day when the nation's future, its children were "stolen".

"Under the guidance of Nawaz Sharif, the nation, with the help of the armed forces and civil security agencies, took revenge for the blood of its children, defeated the terrorists and restored peace," she said.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan said that the martyrs of the APS incident strengthened the nation's resolve against terrorism. "Incident of 16th December was a watershed in our struggle for restoration of peace in the country & especially in KP. We owe today’s peace to our Shuhada," he tweeted.

Earlier in the day, a Quran Khwani was organised at the Chief Minister House in which CM Khan, special assistant to the chief minister Kamran Bangash and other officials participated.

KP Health Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra said "words would never be enough". He shared a picture of the martyred students and wrote: "On this day, the memory of those who sacrificed their lives at #APSPeshawar must spur us on to build a country where the future of millions of children is bright."

Dark day for Pakistan

On Dec 16, 2014, armed militants, wearing paramilitary uniforms, scaled the school's rear wall on Warsak Road using ladders and cut the barbed wire along the top of the wall. Once inside the school, they opened fire in all directions.

The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the outlawed Mullah Fazlullah-led Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. The attack on APS saw a shift in public opinion on the country's struggle against militancy.

In the aftermath of the attack, the army intensified Operation Zarb-e-Azb in tribal areas where militants had previously operated with impunity, and the government announced to launch the sweeping National Action Plan to tackle militancy.

Dawn memorial: Remembering lives lost in the Peshawar school attack

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ordered the government to make public the report of a one-member judicial commission into the incident.

The 525-page report provided an insight into the security lapses and local facilitation to militants that apparently led to the horrific attack.

The report in its conclusion noted that terrorism perpetrated by Pakistan's enemies had reached its peak in the year 2013-14, but said: "this [still] doesn't obligate us to hold that our sensitive installation(s) and soft target(s) could be forsaken as a prey to the terrorists' attack."

It said the entry of terrorists from across the Afghan border into the school's perimeter after "befooling the security apparatus" was mainly due to the porous nature of the border and "unrestrained movement" of Afghan refugees across the frontier.

The report termed as "unpardonable" the assistance provided to the militants by the residents of the school's locality, saying it was "palpable".