@Chief_Mekus 3 May 2022

2014 Peshawar school massacre *I was going through Quora today and stumbled upon a very tragic post and I felt I should write on it.*

It was about the 2014 **Peshawar School Massacre** in **Pakistan**, the world's **fourth** **deadliest** school Massacre. On **16th** of **December 2014**, six gunmen, all of whom were foreign Nationals, conducted a terrorist attack on the **Army Public School** in the city of **Peshawar**. They entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing **149** persons including **132** school children between the ages of **8 and 18**. On the day of the attack, **1,099 students** and staff were present in school. According to reports, the attack began at around **10:30am**, when seven gun men entered the school after scaling the walls. They moved **straight** towards the **assembly hall**, where students were gathered for an assembly on first aid training, and opened fire frantically on the children. They **didn't come** to take **hostages**; rather, they came to **kill** as many **children** as they can, and it was reported that the children were forced to ***watch*** teachers, including the Principal **Tahira Qazi** as she was killed. At the end of the day, the Army succeeded in rescuing **960** persons, of which **121** were injured. **149** people were killed, including ***132*** school staff members and children.

This picture was uploaded by Taha Munir Paracha (L), to his Facebook account, he captioned it "**friends uplift the spirit**". It looks like a normal picture, right? But there was more to it. The picture was meant to serve as a contrast to this:👇

Below are **excerpts** of what happened to **15** year old ***Baqir Jaffri***, after they heard the first ***two shots***. *"Then we heard a third shot, and our Principal, Madam Tahira Qazi, who was sitting in the front row, turned around and asked one of the teachers to lock the back door. I turned around to see Sir Javed (The teacher) walk up to the door, but before he could lock it, he was hit by two bullets that came through the glass. He fell down''*  At first the **gunman** walking by the aisle where **Baqir** had taken cover, did not see him, but he noticed his head when he turned around. The bullet ***grazed*** his ***forehead.*** *"The Gunmen Probably thought that I was dead and walked on down the aisle, shooting boys and teachers. I saw him Shoot our teacher Ms Hafsa three times in the head"* His mother Fatima, who was a teacher at the school, didn't make it out. These were his elder brothers words when he tried to search for his mother. *"I waited at the gate. I was asking every student that was coming out if they had seen her. But nobody said yes. I rang her number a hundred times but there was no response. I called my father who said that my brother was safe in the hospital but there's no news on Mama". Then one of the boys told me he saw her running from the staff room to the Auditorium when the firing broke out. I knew then that she was running for my brother, who was in the auditorium, and that's where she fell, because her handbag and mobile phone were found near the Auditorium Stairs."* Similar horrifying stories emerged in the aftermath of the attack; students were lined up and asked which **ones** had **parents** in the **military**. Those who raised their hands were **shot** **point blank.** An **eighth-grader, Uzair Ali**, tried to shield his friends by lying on top of them. His friends **survived**, but he **didn't**. He was shot **thirteen** times. Fourteen year old Fahad Hussain was gunned down while **holding** a door **open** for his classmates to escape. This was one of the worst terrorist attacks in Pakistan's History and the massacre in which Taha Munir lost his friends, who were two of the 132 persons that were killed that day. May 3, 2022.