ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar vowed on Saturday that “terrorists” can never defeat the nation, as Pakistan marks the ninth anniversary of the Peshawar school massacre today.
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 Army Public School building on Dec. 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.
Pakistan has seen a surge in attacks since a fragile truce between the TTP and the government broke down in Nov. 2022. Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in attacks claimed by the TTP since 2007, including an assassination attempt on Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
“Prime Minister said sympathies of the entire nation stand with the parents whose children made a great sacrifice in this tragedy,” the state-run Radio Pakistan said. “He said coward terrorists can never defeat the nation.”
Kakar said the APS Peshawar incident strengthened the nation’s determination against “terrorism,” Radio Pakistan added.
The state-run media quoted the prime minister as saying that with the APS incident, militants tried unsuccessfully to undermine the morale of the nation in the war against “terrorism.”
“He said the nation has won the war on terror and foiled all the tactics of the enemy to spread mischief and chaos in the country,” Radio Pakistan said.
Pakistan’s ties with Afghanistan have been strained ever since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021. Islamabad has urged Kabul to take action against TTP militants, which it says uses Afghan soil to launch attacks against Pakistan.
Kabul denies the accusations and has urged Pakistan to deal with its security issues internally.
