Gen Raheel Sharif meets APS courageous students as they return to school

PESHAWAR - Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif on Monday morning visited the Army Public School (APS), Peshawar – target of the December 16 terrorists attack – as it reopened after an extended winter break.

The vacations, in schools across Pakistan, were extended for 12 days in the aftermath of the Taliban attack on Army Public School that killed 150 people in the Peshawar. General Sharif along with his wife, met the schoolchildren and their parents at the entrance of the army-run school. They welcomed the children returning to school and raised their morale. General Sharif along with children sang national anthem and a prayer “Lab pe aati hai duaa ban ke tamanna meri.”

He appreciated the courage of students and their parents. “Everyone is in high spirits, this nation is unbeatable,” he was quoted as saying by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). ISPR Director General Major General Asim Bajwa tweeted about the army chief’s visit. Defiant and courageous children in green uniforms and their families returned to the Army Public School in Peshawar on Monday, which was the first day after the tragedy. The school held a ceremony to remember the victims of the terrorist attack and then the students were allowed to go home.

Zahid Ayub, 16, who sustained minor wounds, said, “I am not scared, no force can stop me from going to attend my school, I will go and will tell the attackers, we are not afraid of you.” For 16-year-old Shahrukh Khan, who was shot in both legs while pretending to play dead in his school’s auditorium, going back was traumatic. “I have lost 30 of my friends, how I will sit in the empty class, how I will look to their empty benches,” he said before the school reopened.

At least 20 soldiers were seen at the main entry point of the Army Public School, with an airport-style security gate installed at the front. Elevated boundary walls with steel wire fencing have been put in place around Peshawar and in schools throughout the rest of the country. The government has ordered institutions to ensure protection of the schoolchildren and audits have been carried out on hundreds of schools since December 16.