Peshawar Army School Massacre, A Nation’s Tragedy
By: Bhushan Thakur
Tags: Humanity, True Crime, Massacre, Children, Terrorism

Peshawar Army School Massacre, A Nation’s Tragedy

Martyrs of the attack

Sometimes the smallest coffins are the heaviest to carry…

16 December 2014: The day when humanity died. Something worst had happened. Even the angels of heaven were shaken to the core. The stone-hearted too shed their tears. Every prayer which was made was only for those innocent souls who fell prey victim to that unfortunate and cruel event of history.

The Unfolding of A Tragedy:

10:30 AM: Six terrorists entered the Army Public school of Peshawar located at Warsak. Armed with guns and explosive belts, they drove in the Suzuki Bolan ST41 van. Before entering the school, they set their vehicle on fire. Afterwards, they made a mad rush towards the auditorium and started shooting all the students, who by then, had gathered in the auditorium. They displayed no mercy and no partiality towards anyone, as they pierced bullets into the body of whosoever falling under the range of the target.

To save their lives, the students started running toward exits, oblivious to the fact that already a few armed men had stationed themselves there. These men were waiting to make the final kill, thus sparing no one. The authorities later reported that terrorists entered inside the school premises with an agenda to kill everyone they could. They had no intention of keeping anyone hostage. That day, more than 1000 people including students and staff were present inside the school. A few terrorists with guns, grenades and explosive belts were sufficient to annihilate them all.

10:45 AM: Within the next 15 minutes of the attack, the SSG (Special Service Group) reached the school and entered its premises with heavy armoury, trucks, and hope to save the survivors, if any. But, the major damage was already done. The first terrorist was taken down in the auditorium quickly. One after the other, the remaining five terrorists were killed by the sniper. The trauma team was working in tandem with the rescue operations and trying to treat the wounded.

The Aftermath of Tragedy:

The walls of the auditorium were covered with the stains of blood. They also bore deep bullet-marks. The children, who probably had cheerfully bid goodbye to their parents in the morning, had remorse and agony written all over their faces. A lot of them left school in the coffin; their voices suppressed permanently. They could never ask the question, “What was my fault that I was put through such cruelty?”

We all are aware that death is inevitable but, we also don’t wish such a cruel end upon anyone.

That day there was no single dry eye, everyone prayed for the departed souls. A total of 149 students and school staff were killed in the massacre. Out of which 134 were students. The entire world mourned for them. These students were well within their rights and business to be there, but they got wrapped up in the web of violence.

The Morning After:

In the year 2014, joint military warfare was conducted by the Pakistani Armed Force and against the various terrorist groups in North Waziristan. It was also done as a retaliatory attack against Tehrik-i- Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the group behind the deadly attack at Peshawar Army School. TTP had claimed, ‘it wasn’t action, but a reaction to military operations that caused waves of violence.’

The Pakistani government provided the compensation of PKR 200,000.00 to families of deceased kin. But, losses of such kind can never be compensated in monetary terms, however huge the amount may be. Later, it was confirmed that more than fifty army officer’s sons were killed in that mass-murder.

The responsible person behind this attack was Moustafa Seyan Sediqyar. He coordinated the entire attack from Afghanistan and was later killed in a drone attack. However, the mastermind behind this attack was Umar Mansoor, revealed later, through a video released on the website of the Tehrik-i- Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Post the attack, Pakistani authorities launched crackdowns on Afghan refugee settlements to apprehend illegal immigrants. During this period, at least 30,000 Afghans left for Afghanistan, out of which close to 2,000 were deported due to a lack of legal documentation.

The school reopened on Jan 12th, 2015. In a sign of pure strength and courage, the students who went through the inhumane catastrophe walked down the same auditorium where their friends and teachers were shot to death just a month before.