School massacre: PHC seeks APS probe details from K-P govt
PESHAWAR:January 20:The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government and the provincial police department to provide details of the investigation it conducted over the Army Public School (APS) tragedy.
“The case can’t be just shut down on the pretext that it is of sensitive nature,” observed Justice Roohul Amin, who was hearing the case as part of a two-judge bench, also comprising and Justice Younis Thaheem.
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“They were the children of the nation… no one has forgotten them,” said Justice Amin. “The nation has the right to know about the efforts so far made to provide justice to families of the victims.”
The petitioners, Ajun Khan and Fazal Khan, heirs of the victims, have requested the court to direct the K-P government to provide them information about the progress made in the investigation of the APS tragedy, and form an inquiry commission to conduct proper investigation.
“We are just asking for an inquiry through a judicial commission,” said the petitioner’s counsel senior lawyer Abdul Latif Afridi. “If it is not possible then a fresh FIR should be registered; and if that is also not possible then statements of the victims’ families should be recorded.”
Advocate Naveed Akhtar, who was assisting Afridi, deplored that not even a single family of the victims had been told to record statement in the case so far.
“There were lapses on behalf of both federal and provincial governments and they have to answer some intriguing questions like why it took so long to clear the school of the attackers when there were only seven,” the counsel for the petitioner told the court. He asked where the local police were and why they were hushed up.
The petitioner also asked the court about the role of the anti-terrorism police during the incident.
Meanwhile, Ajun Khan, one of the petitioners, said they had approached almost every institution, but all of them refused to take any responsibility.
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He told the PHC that when the K-P Home and Tribal Affairs Department was asked for information, under the Right to Information Act, they responded that the information demanded by the applicant was of sensitive nature and its disclosure would be detrimental to the national security.
The petitioner requested the court for an independent judicial commission for investigating the APS tragedy.
The petitioner’s lawyer told the court that the provincial government also considered itself ‘exempt’, believing that the case had already been shifted to the military courts under the National Action Plan. He also asked the court to inquire under what law the K-P police shifted the case to the military courts.
The lawyer also said that the FIR carried nothing in accordance with the facts.
“What was your responsibility… what have you investigated,” Justice Amin asked the assistant advocate general, directing him to submit a formal report till January 31.The news.
