CHARSADDA/PESHAWAR: Speakers paid rich tributes to the victims of the terrorist attack on the Bacha Khan University Charsadda on Friday, on the first anniversary of the gruesome assault, which claimed lives of 18 students and faculty members, and injuries to several others.

PTI MPAs Shaukat Ali Yousafzai and Arif Ahmadzai, DIG Mardan Mohammad Ijaz Khan, Charsadda District Nazim Fahad Azam Khan and additional secretary higher education attended the ceremony.

The speakers paid tribute to the students and parents of the victims, saying that the blood of innocent students and their teachers would not go waste. They said the students braved the brazen terrorist attack on the university, and continued to equip themselves with education to face challenges in future.

Soon after the ceremony concluded, the students and parents of the victims held a demonstration, chanting slogans against the provincial and federal governments. They said the absence of civil and military officials from the ceremony spoke of the apathy of the government towards plight of the students and families of the victims.

Absence of civil, military high-ups from first anniversary function protested

“The indifferent attitude of the government as well as the university’s administration proved that the victims were not Pakistani citizens. We strongly condemn this sort of attitude,” said Malik Farooq, president of the students’ union society of Bacha Khan University.

“If the rulers cannot fight for us, then the students are ready to put up fight for their own protection,” he said.

The protesting students demanded registration of FIR against the former vice- chancellor and the then district police officer. They also demanded payment of compensation to the victims’ families on the pattern of the APS attack.

In Peshawar, the parents mostly mothers of the victims of the Army Public School, on Friday reiterated their demand for conducting judicial inquiry into the terrorist attacks on the APS and Bacha Khan University Charsadda.

The parents gathered at the Aman Chowk under the banner of Shuhada Army Public School Forum to express their solidarity with the parents of the students killed in the terrorist attack on the Bacha Khan University.

The parents lighted candles, and also displayed the pictures of the fallen students of the APS.

Talking to Dawn, general secretary of APS Forum Ajoon Khan demanded of the government to order judicial inquiry into both the tragic incidents. “Unfortunately no one from the federal and provincial governments attended the main function on the first anniversary of the varsity attack,” he deplored, saying the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the university had also reminded them of the gory incident of APS, in which 144 students and staff members were killed on Dec 16, 2014.

Published in Dawn January 21st, 2017