Peshawar school massacre: December 16 is not Pakistan's 9/11. It is the lowest of humanity
Khaula bibi was in class 1. She was six years old.
Zia-ul-Islam was in class 8. He was 12 years old.
Shahzeb was in class 8. He was 12 years old.
Shahzad Ijaz was in class 8. He was 12 years old.
Mohammad Azhar Naseer was in class 10. He was 13 years old.
Wahab-ud-din was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Azaan Toraylay was in class 9. He was 13 years old.
Gul Sher was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Yasirullah was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Ahmed Ali Shah was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Hammad Malik was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Wasif Ali Khattak was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Fahid Hussain was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Rizwan Sareer was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Hamid Ali Khan was in class 8. He was 13 years old.
Ali Abbas was in class 9. He was 14 years old.
Baqir Ali was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Mohammad Haris Khan was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Hamid Saif was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Sohail Aslam was in class 9. He was 14 years old.
Mohammad Tayyab Fawad was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Syed Husnain Shah was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Fazal Raheem was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Ammar Iqbal was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Mohammad Furqan Haider was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Haris Nawaz was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Atif-ur-Rehman was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Mohammad Salman was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Fahad Hussain was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Abdullah Ghani Awan was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Umair Arshad was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Nangyal Tariq was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Humayun Iqbal was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Arham Khan was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Syed Mujahid Hussain Shah was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Mohammad Ghasaan Khan was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Uzair Ahmed was in class 9. He was 14 years old.
Hasnain Sharif was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Mohammad Ali Uzair was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Sher Nawaz was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Awais Ahmed was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Tanveer Hussain was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Mohammad Abdullah Zafar was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Sahibzada Omar Khan was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Adil Shahzad was in class 9. He was 14 years old.
Khushnood Zeb was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Shahood Alam was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Alian Fozan was in class 9. He was 14 years old.
Hamza Kamran was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Saifullah Durrani was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Awais Nasir was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Mohammad Shaheer Khan was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Umair Arshad was in class 8. He was 14 years old.
Rafique Raza Bangash was in class 10. He was 15 years old.
Zeeshan Shafique was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Ali was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Yaseen was in class 10. He was 15 years old.
Saad-ur-Rehman was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Farhan Jalal was in class 10. He was 15 years old.
Shayan Nasir was in class 10. He was 15 years old.
Mobeen Aslam was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Zeeshan Ali was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Shamowail Tariq was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Usama bin Tariq was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Shafqat was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Syed Afaq Ahmed was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Asfand Khan was in class 10. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Tahir was in class 10. He was 15 years old.
Shahbaz Ali was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Maheer Rizwan was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Hayatullah Sikandar was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Uzair Khan was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Bahram Ahmed Khan was in class 10. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Waqar was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Abrar Hussain was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Noorullah Durrani was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Basit Ali Sardar was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Ali Rehman was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Osama Zafar was in class 10. He was 15 years old.
Mouzzam Zulfiqar was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Ahmad Elahi was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Haider Amin, class unknown. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Ammar Khan was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Ahmad Mujtaba was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Hamza Ali Kakar was in class 9. He was 15 years old.
Asad Aziz, class unknown. He was 15 years old.
Mohammad Mohsin Murtaza was in class 8. He was 15 years old.
Syed Abdullah Shah was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Nadeem Hussain was in class 9. He was 16 years old.
Huzaifa Aftab was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Mubeen Afridi was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Zargham Mazhar was in class 8. He was 16 years old.
Hassan Zeb was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Malik Usama Tahir Awan was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Sohail Sadar was in class 9. He was 16 years old.
Adnan Hussain was in class 9. He was 16 years old.
Muzamil Umer Sadiq was in class 9. He was 16 years old.
Usman Sadiq was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Mohammad Umar Hayat was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Sher Shah was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Malik Taimoor was in class 9. He was 16 years old.
Zeeshan Ahmad was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Syed Zulqarnain was in class 9. He was 16 years old.
Shah Fahad was in class 10. He was 16 years old.
Bilal Arshad was in Class 8. He was 17 years old.
Mohammad Sahiban Durrani was in Class 10. He was 17 years old.
Mohammad Zeeshan Afridi was in 2nd year. He was 18 years old.
Shafique-ur-Rehman was in 2nd year. He was 18 years old.
Ishaq Amin was in 2nd year. He was 18 years old.
Aimal Khan was in 2nd year. He was 18 years old.
Ibrar Zahid was in 2nd year. He was 18 years old.
Yasir Iqbal was in 2nd year. He was 18 years old
Mohammad Imran was in 2nd year. He was 18 years old.
Imran Ali was in Class 10. He was 18 years old.
Zain Iqbal was in 2nd year. He was 19 years old.
Mohammad Daud was in 2nd year. He was 19 years old.
Saqib Ghani, class unknown. He was 19 years old.
Maher Ali Azam was in 2nd year. He was 19 years old.
Waseem Iqbal was in 4th year. He was 20 years old.
Abdul Azam Afridi was in 2nd year. He was 20 years old.
Mohmmad Sami, 22, was the school peon.
Ehsanullah, 22, was the school driver.
Mohammad Hussain, 24, was the school gardener.
Zahir Shah, 40, was the school gardener.
Mohammad Bilal, 32, was the school guard.
Akbar Zaman, 40, was the school head clerk.
Mohammad Shafiq, 41, was the school clerk.
Mudassar Khan, 25, was a lab assistant.
Pervez Akhtar, 50, was a lab assistant.
Hafsa Khan, 23, was a teacher.
Sadia Gul Khattak, 24, was a teacher.
Hajra Sharif, 28, was a teacher.
Beenish Umar, 30, was a teacher.
Sahar Afshan, 33, was a teacher.
Farhat Bibi, 39, was a teacher.
Saima Zareen, 39, was a teacher.
Sofia Hijab, 42, was a teacher.
Shahnaz Naeem, 42, was a teacher.
Nawab Ali, 42, was a teacher.
Mohammad Saeed, 52, was a teacher.
Sajjad Ali, 42, was the school superintendent.
Tahira Qazi, 64, was the school principal.
All of them were different from one another. Now all of them have one thing in common: the day of their death. All of them died on December 16, 2014.
December 16, 2014. Army Public School. Peshawar. Pakistan. Just another ordinary day, until it wasn't. There were six men, one Chechen, two Afghan, three Arabs. Armed with automatic guns and grenades they entered the school and went on a rampage. It was a massacre. Going from classroom to classroom, they sprayed children with bullets. They killed some children with point-blank shots to their head and face. They pulled children from their hiding place under their desks, and shot them. The six men killed 132 children. The total number of the dead on that day is reported to be 144-150. Survivors tell stories that chill your blood. They have scars that won't go for a long, long time.
The day children became shaheed. The day children became ghazi.
After an eight-hour long operation of the Pakistan Army's Special Services Group, all six terrorists were killed.
Three soldiers were martyred, Lance Naik Mohammad Altaf, Naik Nadeem-ur-Rehman Anjum and Soldier Naveed Iqbal.
Said to be the "revenge" of the TTP for Pakistan military's targeted clean-up of their strongholds in the region, the deadliest attack on the children of Pakistan in its history became the rallying point for all of Pakistan. The National Action Plan came into existence, and things changed. Apparently, hopefully, for the better.
Omar Khorasani, the mastermind of the attack, is said to have been killed in a drone attack in October 2017 in the eastern Afghanistan.
It is not Pakistan's 9/11. It does not have a name, a description. It is beyond binaries. It is the lowest of humanity. It is heroism like no other as some children, staff members and school personnel lost their life trying to save others.
It is pain that is forever. There is nothing worse than burying your child. A child killed by the bullet to his head.
May no life ever be lost to terrorism.
Four years of inerasable images, of the soul-crushing senselessness of the loss of a loved one that still needs closure, of justice that is still awaited, of memories that haunt, on December 16, 2018, there is just one thing that makes any sense: prayer.
Even writing about it is a pain like no other. I send prayers for those who mourn, every day, for their loved one. May Allah give you strength to live with your loss the enormity of which is beyond imagination.
May you find your closure, your answer...
(Credit for names and ages of victims: Dawn, Pakistan)
Also Read: How two tragedies of December 16 tie Pakistan and India together