The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the govt to form public the report of a one-member judicial commission on the 2014 Army Public School (APS) Peshawar carnage.
In the deadliest terror attack within the country’s history, 131 schoolchildren and 10 people were martyred when heavily armed militants stormed the varsity building on December 16, 2014.
A two-judge SC bench headed by judge Gulzar Ahmed heard the case supported a suo motu notice taken on complaints of the oldsters of the martyred children, who claimed that the important culprits involved within the gruesome incident had not yet been arrested by authorities.
Dawn memorial: Remembering lives lost within the Peshawar school attack
Following extensive proceedings cover almost 20 months, the leader of the commission, Justice Mohammad Ibrahim of the Peshawar supreme court , had submitted the report back to the apex court on July 9.
The 525-page report made public today provides an insight into the safety lapses and native facilitation to militants that apparently led to the horrific attack.
The report in its conclusion noted that terrorism perpetrated by Pakistan's enemies had reached its peak within the year 2013-14, but said "this [still] doesn't obligate us to carry that our sensitive installation(s) and soft target(s) might be forsaken as a prey to the terrorists' attack."
It said the entry of terrorists from across the Afghan border into the school's perimeter after "befooling the safety apparatus" was mainly thanks to the porous nature of the border and "unrestrained movement" of Afghan refugees across the frontier.
The report termed as "unpardonable" the help provided to the militants by the residents of the school's locality, saying it had been "palpable".
"When one's own blood and flesh commit treachery and betrayal, the result would always be devastating," it stated, adding that no agency, regardless of how capable or equipped, could effortlessly counter an attack "when infidels are within the inside".
According to the report, on the morning of Dec 16, 2014, the APS premises was left unattended after an MVT (security patrolling team) moved towards the smoke rising from a vehicle assail fire by the terrorists as a part of their decide to create a distraction.
Using this edge, the militants entered the varsity from the backside. Although another MVT skilled the attack, it wasn't ready to buy the needed time for the fast Response Force (QRF) and Rapid Response Force (RRF) to overwhelm the terrorists before they might "cause the catastrophe", the report said.
It said the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) had issued a generic threat alert about terrorists seeking to focus on army families and academic institutions as retribution for the successful military operations Zarb-i-Azb and Khyber-I against militants.
Following this, although the soldiers successfully operated against terrorists' niches, "the incident of APS plagued their success stories which deserved deification", the report added.
Detailing the "fiasco" within the school's security apparatus, the inquiry commission said the amount of static guards, which comprised the primary tier of security, was "incomparable" to the looming threat. The guards' improper position and accentuated main gates and front area compromised the school's security from the rear , from where the terrorists managed to enter "with no retaliation".
"Equally incomprehensible is that the inertia on a part of the Askari Guards also because the deputed static guards to the initial heavy firing and blasts by terrorists," the report read. "Had they shown a touch response and will engage the militants within the very beginning of the attack, the impact of the incident may need been lesser."
However, it noted that the terrorists' movement towards the adjacent toddlers' block of the varsity was restricted by soldiers of MVT-2 and QRF on their arrival.
According to the report, the unit regulating MVT-1 has been handed down punishment by a "court of inquiry".
The author of the report said although there was a "clandestine and somewhere failing agreement of views of the aggrieved/complainants (parents of victims) concerning the incident ... it's most likely due to the communication gap between them and therefore the military which i think must have abridged in due course of the proceedings before this commission".
The report lauded the Pakistan Army both for uprooting terrorism from the country within the wake of the APS attack and for "their unflinching support to the victim families".
"The bereaved families and soldiers are two limbs of an equivalent body," it said, adding that "no external force" could harm the connection between the citizens and soldiers of Pakistan.
SC asks govt to require action 'from the top'
During a hearing of the case on Friday, the attorney general while submitting a reply on the inquiry commission's report on behalf of the govt informed the SC that "every possible action" was being taken against the persons involved within the carnage.
Chief Justice Ahmed regretted that traditionally lower-ranked officials were held liable for such incidents and "nothing is asked of the people at the top".
"This tradition should stop," he said, adding that the govt should take action to stop similar incidents within the future.
The top judge observed that the militants were ready to achieve the target that they had began for, saying "security institutions should are conscious of this conspiracy."
"The people aren't safe even during this much security."
The parents of the deceased children said the incident wasn't terrorism but "targeted killing". Seeking action against those responsible, they said they didn't want the other parents to travel through the pain they endured.
The court ordered that a replica of the inquiry commission's report and of the government's response be provided to the oldsters of the APS victims. It also appointed lawyer Amanullah Kanrani as friend of the court (friend of court) within the case.
The hearing of the case was adjourned for a month.
The judicial inquiry commission was constituted on Columbus Day , 2018, by the PHC, on the order of the Supreme Court and it had started working on Oct 19 an equivalent year.
The commission’s spokesperson had earlier told media that it had recorded statements of 132 persons, 31 of whom were police and military officials, while the remainder of the 101 were witnesses, including injured students and fogeys of the martyred children. The commission had also examined different investigations conducted by police also as security agencies.
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