Supreme Court to hear Army Public Schoolchildren massacre case on Oct 5

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court will resume suo motu hearing on Oct 5 of a case relating to the 2014 Army Public School (APS) carnage in Peshawar.

The bench which will hear the carnage case is headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar and comprises Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.
The Supreme Court registrar office issued notices to the attorney general for Pakistan and advocate general for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa among others.
In the deadliest terror attack in the country’s history, 131 schoolchildren and 10 other people were killed when heavily armed militants stormed the school building on Dec 16, 2014.
The chief justice had taken the suo motu notice of the matter on April 19 when parents of the martyred children requested him to order a judicial inquiry into the carnage while he was on a visit to the Supreme Court’s Peshawar registry.
The parents had complained that some weeks before the APS carnage, the authorities concerned were alerted by the National Counter Terrorism Authority about a terrorist threat to attack an army-run educational institution, possibly the Peshawar APS. However, they said, no steps were taken to prevent the attack.
Subsequently, the apex court had ordered formation of a judicial commission on an application submitted by APS Martyrs Forum — led by mothers of the victims. The application requested the court to put pressure on the government to punish those involved in the attack and those who failed to protect the children.
The parents said they had been demanding justice for over three years now and had been putting forward their request for a judicial inquiry at different forums, but to no avail.