Peshawar: Schools in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar re-opened Monday morning for the first time since a Taliban raid massacred 150 people, mainly children, with returning students expressing defiance tinged with apprehension.
However, despite aggravated security measures, children trotting back to the Army Public School in Peshawar, may still take more time to feel the normalcy as most of their classmates are no more. The Dec 16 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar claimed the lives of 150 people, mostly children, and prompted a bout of national soul-searching even in a country used to high levels of violence.
The grisly attack not only shocked the nation but also drew condemnation from across the world.
All the schools in Peshawar were closed as the city struggled to come to terms with the deadliest attack witnessed in its history.
The move to reopen schools comes after the authorities have taken exceptional measures to beef up security around schools in Peshawar. According to a report in Dawn news, the only those schools were allowed to reopen that fulfilled a set of security requirements like CCTVs and higher boundary walls. Other schools, that lacked the stipulated set of security criteria, were not given the NOCs (No-Objection-Certificates) and hence could not reopen.
According to 16-year-old Shahrukh Khan, who was shot in both legs and played dead to avoid being killed by Talibani gunmen, it was heartbreaking to return to the classroom only to find the haunting empty benches as most of his friends were killed in the attack.
“I have lost 30 of my friends, how I will sit in the empty class, how I will look to their empty benches,” the 16-year-old told the AFP. My heart has been broken. All the class fellows I had have died, now my heart does not want to attend school,” he added.
Bureau Report
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