An important lesson of the Dec 16, 2014 massacre of nearly 150 students and staff of Army Public School Peshawar on this day is to look inwardly and shed any doubt that the militants must be fought to the end and not appeased
This was stated by the Sentor Farhatullah Babar president of the human rights cell of the PPPP while addressing the civil society demonstration in Islamabad Saturday evening to commemorate the APS martyrs.
“December 16 is a dark day in the history of the country on this day that innocent students were martyred in a school in highly secured zone of the city and earlier in 1971 Pakistan broke into two after humiliating surrender in Dacca.
“Introspection and an admission of mistakes on such a day is no shame”.
The APS tragedy and the recent resurgence of terror in the country is a reminder that state’s security and foreign policies have failed as the non state actors are active once again are on a rampage with impunity, he said.
Those who sought to placate the militants and negotiate peace with them last year have done incalculable damage to the nation and must be held accountable.
He said that soon after the APS tragedy all political parties and institutions devised a National Action Plan to fight the terrorists but it has not been implemented. The Commission set up to inquire into the massacre of scores of lawyers some time back in Quetta headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa stated it in no uncertain terms. There is need to implement the recommendations of that Commission, he said.
A closure of the tragedy will not be achieved without answering some fundamental questions about the APS attack repeatedly asked by the heirs of the victims, he said
On this day let us also reiterate that terrorists are terrorists without any distinction of good or bad and they must be dealt with an iron hand and not appeased.
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