ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court on Saturday extended by three weeks a deadline it gave to the government for the submission of an implementation report on the horrendous 2014 attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar.
In November, the court in a hearing attended by Prime Minister Imran Khan directed the federal government to submit the report, signed by the top executive, by December 10.
However, on Thursday, the government requested the apex judicial forum to grant it three more weeks to do the same.
In the attack that provoked horror and fierce international condemnation, members of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), wearing suicide vests, stormed the education facility on December 16, slaughtering 147 people, 132 of them children.
Citing sources, reports said the proceedings are expected to resume after winter vacations.
The court summoned Khan to the November hearing after his government started negotiating with the TTP — earning the ire of the parents of the slain children who accused the government of “bringing the group to the negotiating table instead of taking action against it”.
“The government did not take us into confidence over the negotiations with the murderers of our children. They have no right to decide alone and talk to the TTP. They should have consulted us before engaging with them,” Dost Muhammad, who lost his 14-year-old son in the assault, told a foreign media outlet.
A day before the hearing, the government and TTP entered a one-month ceasefire which they said might be extended if both sides agree. However, the group ended the agreement Friday, saying the government had not released more than 100 prisoners as promised and had not appointed negotiating teams to conduct talks.
It also said security forces had carried out raids while the ceasefire was in force.
‘ALL PERPETRATORS MET THEIR FATE’
All perpetrators of the attack, including masterminds and those who executed the plan, have either been killed, sentenced to death or action deemed necessary has been taken against them.
12 terrorists suspected of involvement in the attack were apprehended following the massacre, of which six were tried by special military courts and were handed over death sentences.
Five of them were executed while one filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
Six militants — Atiqur Rehman alias Usman, Kifayatullah alias Kaif Qari, Sabeel alias Yahya Afridi, Mujeebur Rehman alias Ali and Maulvi Abdul Salam Commander — were arrested from inside Pakistan while the rest were arrested from Afghanistan.
The military also took disciplinary action against those individuals who did not come up to the warranted necessary measures, including dismissal from service.
