Supreme Court orders government to make Peshawar school massacre report public

Pakistani youth hold candles next to a banner showing pictures of victims of an attack on a Peshawar school in 2014 during a demonstration in connection with the first anniversary of the attack on Dec. 15, 2015. (AP/File)

• The country’s top judiciary wants the government to take strict action against those whose negligence made the carnage possible
• Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed says it is important to prevent such future tragedies

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan instructed the government on Friday to make public the judicial commission report on the Army Public School massacre that took place in Peshawar on December 16, 2014.
The attack happened when six Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants conducted a terrorist attack on a military-run education institute in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 149 people including 132 schoolchildren.
Pakistan’s former chief justice, Saqib Nisar, formed the commission in 2018 since the parents of the martyred children wanted an investigation into the tragedy.
During the hearing, the court asked the attorney general to name those whose negligence made it easy for terrorists to take so many lives of innocent children and members of the school management.
Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed asked him to begin with those individuals were in power, adding that strict action should be taken against them to prevent such tragedies from taking place in the future.
According to Dawn, a local newspaper, the commission report maintained that the TTP militants had crossed Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan and reached their destination after “befooling the security apparatus.”
The report also said they were assisted by the residents of the neighborhood where the school was located, adding: “When one’s own blood and flesh commit treachery and betrayal, the result would always be devastating.”
The hearing of the case has now been adjourned for a month.