ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday reiterated the country’s “iron will” to eliminate militancy, as the nation observes the eighth anniversary of the Army Public School (APS) massacre, where militants stormed a school in Peshawar and killed 134 children.
A group of heavily armed militants belonging to the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction — a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban — entered the APS building on December 16, 2014, and killed children and staff members. The incident took place in a high security area in Peshawar in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Thousands of other Pakistanis also lost their lives in TTP militant attacks in the last two decades, with the group accepting responsibility for several high-profile attacks, including an assassination attempt on activist and now Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
“Every year, December 16 reminds the entire nation of the pain and sorrow when terrorists carried out atrocities at the APS (Army Public School) Peshawar,” PM Sharif wrote on Twitter.
“Even after years, the grief is not forgotten,” he added.
The premier added that December 16 was a day for a country should remain united against the menace of terrorism.
“This struggle of ours is going on and will continue with the same iron will and perseverance until the complete elimination of this monster [militancy] from this country,” he said.
In November, the TTP announced the end of an indefinite cease-fire agreed with the government in June and ordered its militants to carry out attacks across the country.
