In Pakistan, many attacks have happened on education. Even in a conflict setting it is considered inhumane to attack the children, but why is this rule not followed by extremists of Pakistan and how successful are they in their purpose for which they attack schools?
They consider Armed forces their enemy, they do know that they maybe cannot outnumber them in a normal war due to lack of resources. They also have some grievances against armed forces on how they have harmed their families. The attack on Army Public School Peshawar is a perfect example for this. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took full responsibility of the attack and mentioned it the revenge for operations happening in Waziristan, where Taliban's claimed that Military has harmed their families and they want them to feel the pain.
“We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani
There are many negative consequences attached to these attacks for students. I being a person who had studied in Army Public school for more than 10 years when heard about the attack on APS back in 2014, the state of mind me or many of my fellows were, probably cannot be described. Seeing your friends on television screen whom you once shared benches with or friends who you played with covered in blood is not something you would want to see in your life. What those children and their parents went through still bring tears in my eyes to this day.
Saying this, students don't let these attacks demotivate them. Many students were sad but everyone had a sense of positivity that in no way we are going to let this affect our education, we are going to go to schools and continue our studies. I remember the day this attack happened, the next day all branches of APS were open and the attendance was full.
From all this I learnt that no matter whatever tactics the terrorists use to hinder the education of students, students get more strength and motivation to work hard and attend school.
This is incredibly heartbreaking and sad. I remember how unbelievable the news was when i first heard it. For many days that followed, everything felt unreal, there was so much fear and insecurity in students from other regions of Pakistan. I remember sometimes hearing some random beeping sound while at school and thinking a bomb was about to go off. The emotional trauma that as a nation we had to undergo was immense. Its horrifying to thing to what extent children who faced these losses first hand would have gone through. And completely agreed with the rest of the comments, Our media industry and their way of handling sensitive situations have always been incredibly insensitive and we as a natio…
Terribly upsetting to read any kind of account from the APS attack, but I hate the narrative pushed forward after it, with the children being compared to soldiers and anything for education. False positivity is an easy way to cover the fact that those children were not soldiers but merely collateral damage to a war much bigger than them. Children must be protected at all costs, whether they're in APS or private institutions.
I think it's extremely disturbing how the Taliban are always portraying themselves to be doing "Gods" work and claiming that they're followers of Islam when everything they do is such a contradiction to the teachings of the religion. The APS attack was a scary example of how children will always be targeted in wars to instill fear and send a message of the great lengths terrorists are willing to go in times of conflict. I also think it is inspiring when despite the trauma any of the survivors may have struggled with, that they still had the strength to continue attending school. It really is inspiring and sends a stronger message to terrorists, I'd also like to point out that…
So heartbreaking to see the way that its always children who get in the crossfires of wars fought between adults. I can't imagine the fear that you and your class-fellows must have felt. However, looking back, I think the government failed these students and their families. I remember how news channels would mercilessly ask parents and survivors to narrate the events in full detail, insensitive to the trauma that many of them were battling. The narrative was built that the children who died were martyred heroes and should be celebrated. No attention was paid to the fact that they shouldn't have been martyrs in the first place, and that they- and their parents- didn't choose this.
This day was one of the most terrifying day for all us. I remember how I got mentally disturbed and all the time sitting in my classroom i used to think of ways how will i save my self during any kind of attack. We have to understand the psychological effects of these kind of attack the aftermath is mostly ignored, These kids were not soldiers, the nation has to stop this. they were there to get education not to fight.