Pakistan’s leader yesterday called for vengeance under portraits of children killed by Taliban bullets as the country marked the first anniversary of a school massacre that left 151 people dead in its worst-ever extremist attack.
Families of the victims along with military and political leaders attended an emotional ceremony at the army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar to mark the assault, which mostly claimed the lives of schoolchildren.
Relatives were accompanied by students bearing images of their loved ones as they spoke one by one of children with bright smiles who worried about their hair and handwriting, but had dreams of being artists and engineers.
Photo: AP
“My children, today I make this promise to you, that I will take revenge for every drop of your blood,” Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said, addressing the massacre victims directly.
The ceremony, which a military official said was attended by about 2,500 guests including celebrities and sports stars, was broadcast live on state television.
Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif and opposition leader Imran Khan were also in attendance.
Earlier, the parents of the 134 children killed in the hours-long siege visited their children’s graves in Peshawar.
“We think a lot about the students who lost their lives,” Abu Bakar, a teacher who was shot three times as he threw himself in front of fleeing children during the siege, said, adding that the loss was “something that cannot be described.”
“This should not have happened to them, they were innocent students,” he said. “They came here for studies, they were not at war with anyone.”
On social media, Pakistanis were changing their profile pictures to an image depicting an Army Public School uniform with a bloody bullet hole resembling a poppy, and a caption reading: “Some stains don’t wash out.”
The Taliban have said that they carried out the attack in retaliation for an army offensive on extremists in the tribal areas.
The attack hardened public opinion against extremism and prompted a military-led crackdown that has improved security, with this year on course for the fewest deaths linked to extremist violence since 2007, the year the Pakistani Taliban were formed.
Pakistan deployed paramilitary forces and police in major cities for the anniversary.
In Peshawar, the area around the school was designated a red zone, and army helicopters hovered as hundreds of soldiers guarded main junctions.
Army Public Schools across the country were open for ceremonies marking the anniversary.
“All the people of Pakistan are with us and they are trying to support us and helping us to move towards the future and to just forget this incident,” said Muhammad Hamza, a 17-year-old student whose brother died in the attack.
However, the trauma lingers for many, with parents of the slain children saying they are still seeking answers about how the security apparatus could have failed them so completely.
At least a dozen families boycotted yesterday’s ceremony in protest.
At the school, Sharif declared Dec. 16 a national day of education, promising he would not let extremists “burn out the flame of knowledge.”
Teachers and students said that education was their best revenge.
“The Taliban want us to quit our studies and become ignorant like them,” 13-year-old Uzair Khan said. “We don’t want to do that. God willing, we will continue our education, move forward and avenge them.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of