Exactly six years ago from today. A brutal incident occurred in the history of mankind which unfolded the darkest hour of this century in its kind. It was the most inhuman crime commenced by few devil minds.
It was a fine morning of Dec 16, 2014 when the seven terrorists attacked Army Public School Peshawar. The Massacre that took lives of more than 150 people including children, teachers, and school staff members. At that time, the school had more than 1000 students and staff personals. The terrorists had started their attack in mid-morning when they reached the compound by climbing a wall, entered main assembly, where a large group of students taking lessons of their first aid. They started to shoot indiscriminately armed with automatic rifles and grenades they went to classrooms step by step where they concentrated fire on other students and teachers.
Anti-Terrorism Specialist, Zarrar Commandos from Special Service Group has been deployed to neutralize all the attacking elements. All the attackers were lined up with suicide vests containing explosives. Operation lasted for 8 hours where all attackers have been neutralized and some soldiers injured due to shrapnel from the vests. The school has been neutralized from the terrorist.
Unfortunately, Pakistan already faces challenges in education because of poor access, low enrollments and physical infrastructure, violent events such as attack on APS Peshawar has further exacerbated those challenges, however, and disrupted the education of hundreds of thousands of children.
Days after the attached, Government of Pakistan launched the National Action Plan to Counter Terrorism. National Action Plan or NAP Comprised immediate policy initiatives aimed at wiping out terrorist activities and outfits across the country. The integration security efforts comprise of the Federal and Provincial governments including the stakeholders of the society dismantling and destroying terrorist networks and ensuring peace utilizing all available resources and capabilities of security organizations to overcome internal and external threats to security.
The Government restructures National Counter terrorism Authority (NECTA) to effectively tackle internal threats, Counter Insurgency (COIN) Operations has been launched, the plan aimed to bridging the gaps in the first version rolled out in 2015, according to the documents; the Ministry of Interior plans to create a Cyber Security division that could deter growing threats of Cybercrimes and Cyber Securities.
Immediately after the National Action Plan, The Military Operation speeded up and air strikes were carried out by Pakistan Air Force on terrorist hideouts in North Waziristan and Tirah valley on massive scale. A total of twenty additional aerial bombing operations were being carried out using dynamic and precision targeting ensuring maximum damage.
In an official press conference, Directorate General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) reveals that Pakistan Army has killed all the APS Attack Plotters.
With a strong resolve and not to be gagged by any threats from terrorist, Army Public School, Warsak Road Peshawar reopened for educational activities in December 2015 alongside other institutions in the province with the resolve that no threat could deter our children getting education as most integral element of the society and the way to move forward.
Education and knowledge are the essential elements of national growth and competitiveness in the current era. In the current specialized scientific and knowledge and globalized age and advancements educations makes the way towards the progress and advancement of the society. An educated society is must for the development that can be at par with developed countries of the world.
But it is not just the scientific and technological aspects of the country’s education system, it also transforms a nation, it is only one of the few parts of bigger picture. The Education system also cultivate a citizenry that is deeply aware of the national interest and strives to preserve and present it on national and international levels and forums without any confusion and obfuscation. As reference to some recent studies, security of a country is not just dependent on its military prowess and might. It is the human capital that determines the effectiveness of national security.
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