Families of students killed in 2014 Peshawar army school attack move court against Pak govt-TTP talks

A joint petition was filed by the mothers of four students and a woman teacher seeking a directive for the government against 'taking any step of reconciliation with the outfit without taking them into confidence', Dawn reported.

The petitioners included Falak Naz, mother of students Noorullah and Saifullah, Shahana, mother of Asfand Khan, Seema, mother of Aimal Khan, and Zulaikha, mother of teacher Sadia Gul.

A bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Abdul Shakoor issued a notice to the interior secretary asking him to respond to the petition, on the next date of hearing to be fixed later.

The respondents in the petition are the defence ministry through its secretary, the interior ministry through its secretary, the federal government through its law secretary, and the focal person of the National Action Plan (NAP), Dawn reported.

Advocate Ajoon Khan, father of student Asfand Khan, who was killed in the attack appeared for the petitioners.

He noted that they were direct victims of the brutal act of killing innocent students and some of their teachers at the APS by the TTP militants, so negotiating with the outfit by the government without redressing their grievances would be a destruction of the justice system in the country.

Ajoon Khan requested the court to issue directives to the government not to take any step of reconciliation with the TTP without taking his clients on board.

He said, "The petitioners are the victim of one of the most brutal incidents that occurred in this country as a consequence of which minor students in large numbers were martyred. The families of the APS martyrs had time to time protested and raised their voice against the campus carnage not only in Peshawar but in other cities, including Islamabad, as well."

"The petitioners had also appeared and put forward their grievances before a one-member Judicial Commission consisting of Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, which was probing the matter on the order of the Supreme Court," he added.

Khan further said that the judicial commission had completed its probe and submitted its report to the apex court including its findings and recommendations. "Some of the reservations of the petitioners had now been pending before the Supreme Court and they had regularly been appearing before it," he said.

Speaking of the ongoing negotiations between the Pakistan government and TTP, the counsel said that his clients learned through print, electronic and social media that the federal government had a started dialogue with the TTP and that only the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which was heading the coalition government, had exclusively started it without taking into confidence other stakeholders, the Dawn reported.

Khan claimed that the Pakistan Peoples Party had objected to the negotiations and had demanded a joint sitting of parliament for discussing the matter, but instead of a joint sitting the government had only convened a meeting of a National Assembly standing committee to satisfy its coalition partner, whereas the victims of the APS carnage were completely ignored.

"If any compromise took place between the government and the TTP without taking the stakeholders, especially the aggrieved parents of the slain students, into confidence, it would tarnish the country's image across the world," he asserted.

On December 16, 2014, six terrorists affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) attacked the Army Public School in the northwestern city of Peshawar. 147 people, including 132 children, were killed in the attack.

The TTP had created havoc in Pakistan with several attacks between 2007-2014. The TTP members had fled to Afghanistan after Islamabad launched widescale operations against the group following the Peshawar attack. But the Taliban's emergence to power in Afghanistan has inspired the TTP and they have scaled up attacks in Pakistan targetting their forces and posing a major challenge to Islamabad despite their calls for negotiations. (ANI)