THE points highlighted by the report of the Judicial Commission on 16 Dec 2014 terrorist attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar should form basis both for security apparatus and people at large to learn lessons to prevent recurrence of such tragedies in future. The 525-page report, authored by Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan of Peshawar High Court, blames security fiasco as well as treachery and betrayal by ‘one’s own blood and flesh’ for the incident.
APS tragedy was one of the blackest chapters in the history of the country as 141 precious human lives, including 131 schoolchildren and 10 others, were lost when heavily armed militants stormed the ace educational institutions. As pointed out by the inquiry report, the sole objective of the attack was to “target the army families as retribution for the unstoppable and successful military operations against the terrorists’ hideouts, particularly, Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Khyber-1.” This is yet another honest appreciation and recognition of the contribution of the defence forces and the successes they achieved in the war against terror. No doubt, the terrorist succeeded in their nefarious designs to kill innocent souls in a targeted manner but miserably failed to break the will of the defence forces and the nation to fight the menace of terrorism and extremism to the end. The Government and all other relevant institutions including Parliament came firmly on one page as far as elimination of the threat of terrorism was concerned and the resultant operation proved to be a huge success as is evident from resumption of normal life in previously terrorist-ridden regions of the country. The report noted that the entry of the terrorists from the cross-border (Afghanistan) till their infiltration into the doomed school’s perimeter befooling the security apparatus could be attributed to mainly the porous north-west border and Afghan refugees’ movement across the border in view of the understanding inter se the government and international agency regarding refugee’s unrestrained movement. This shows the tragedy has its origin in Afghanistan, which is still non-cooperative as far as efforts and plans for making the border safe and secure are concerned. In the backdrop of unwillingness of the Afghan Government and foreign occupation forces to act decisively against terrorists and militants that use Afghan soils against Pakistan, Pakistan Army has done well by focusing on border fencing. There is also urgency to bring the saga of Afghan refugees into an end as their presence is misused by enemies of Pakistan to attack soft targets. The authorities concerned also need to concentrate on improving security SOPs as APS tragedy could not be prevented or mitigated despite presence of sufficient number of security personnel and advance warning about possible terrorist threat.
