Country on high security alert today

PESHAWAR: Paramilitary forces and police were deployed in major cities Wednesday as Pakistan marked the first anniversary of the Army Public School massacre that left 151 people dead, shocking a country already scarred by nearly a decade of Taliban terrorist attacks.

The brutal assault by nine Taliban gunmen on the school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which mostly claimed the lives of schoolchildren, was the country's deadliest ever terrorist attack.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was attending a ceremony at the Army Public School in Peshawar Wednesday, along with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan.

"Security has been beefed up throughout the country and additional police troops have been deployed in major cities, while paramilitary troops have been deployed at places deemed sensitive," a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said Wednesday without elaborating.

Soldiers were standing at alert on main roads and junctions in Peshawar early Wednesday ahead of the ceremony. A security official said that almost a full brigade would be deployed in the city.

Army Public Schools across the country are "particularly under threat", he said, especially in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which neighbours the capital Islamabad.

Khan called on the nation to stand firm against extremism in honour of the victims of the "unimaginable tragedy".

"A yr later we must honour the memory of APS martyrs & courage of the survivors by strengthening our resolve to defeat terrorists´ agenda," he said on Twitter.


Of the 151 people martyred by the Taliban in the hours-long siege, 134 were children, according to the army's final toll.

The attack hardened public opinion against extremism and prompted a military-led crackdown that has improved security, with 2015 on course for the fewest deaths linked to extremist violence since 2007, the year the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was formed.

One of the massacre survivors, 14-year-old Ahmad Nawaz, recounted the horror of the attack in which he was shot in the arm and his brother was martyred.

"I was surrounded by the dead bodies of those friends. So it was the horrifying experience of my life and I still have nightmares," he said.

One year on, a veneer of normality has returned to the Peshawar school where classes have resumed and children play while soldiers stand atop recently fortified walls. But the trauma lingers and parents of the slain children say they are still seeking answers.