Daily Times

It was just a normal day at NUST, Islamabad. After having my breakfast at the hostel mess, I was enjoying the bright sunshine of a cold winter morning. At midday around 12 noon, I observed a lot of helicopter movement from east to west along the Peshawar road. Helicopters were flying low and their numbers were increasing very rapidly. Helicopters movement along this route were normal but this time around, I sensed something abnormal. Suddenly most of the students in the hostel rooms were rushing towards the TV lounge. Meanwhile, I received a call on my cell phone from a close friend who was calling from the TV lounge asking me to come down immediately.

I reached the TV lounge, which was packed to capacity, and all eyes were glued to the TV screen. There was pin drop silence and we all were shocked to see the live coverage of that barbarian act against the innocent schoolchildren. Initial reports were misleading and different channels were giving different figures for the innocent martyrs of the Army Public School, Peshawar. Most of the students present in the lounge especially those from KP had tears in their eyes and some were calling their relatives back in Peshawar, whose children or relatives were in the same school.

As the news poured in from reporters of different channels, we came to know that a few terrorists entered the school around about 11am and after killing three security guards, they started indiscriminate firing as well as throwing hand bombs. They killed as many as 132 students and 10 school staff members including the principal.

This particular terrorist attack united the whole nation and an action against the terrorists was considered necessary and without any delay. The prime minister announced that we shall take revenge for each blood drop of the school children while the Army Chief said that these terrorists have attacked on our nation’s heart and we shall not spare these cruel animals.

December 16 is a dark day in the history of Pakistan. We lost East Pakistan in 1971 and on the same date in 2014, we suffered a heavy blow by the terrorists in Peshawar. We as a nation had the courage to bear this great loss but it also gave us the determination to fight terrorism for our own good sake.

The operation against terrorists has resulted positively for the nation. If we see the post 16^th December 2014 security situation, then the decrease in the number of suicide attacks is a testament of the performance of our security forces.

The massacre which took place on December 16,2014 is very painful but what remains the good thing is that we as a nation became united and stood up against terrorism in the country.