Mohammad Nawaz Khan, father of the victims of APS Peshawar incident Harris and Ahmad Nawaz, recalls that his younger son Harris did not want to go to school on December 16, 2014 but he had forced him to go to school where he was shot dead by the terrorists. Nawaz Khan, who used to run his business in Peshawar, had move to Birmingham with his two remaining sons and wife. Narrowing the details of the events unfolded on December 16 five year ago, Nawaz said that he was at the garage in Peshawar city to fix his car when a person informed him about the attack on APS. On hearing the tragic news, he rushed towards the school.
According to him, he was on the way to his kids’ school when he saw around 20 ambulances making their way to hospital, so he decided to follow them to find out about his own sons. On reaching the hospital, he saw paramedics were putting dead bodies on the ground and taking those injured to the emergency ward. He started looking for his sons and looked at the every single child brought to the hospital.
Says terrorists had killed his son, but he is ready to sacrifice his whole family for the sake of the country
Within minutes, Nawaz recalls that his mobile phone rang and it was his elder son Ahmad, who told him that he was at another hospital. He was consoling me, Nawaz said, and added that Ahmad told him that he had been injured and said he would be fine. His next question was about his 9-year-old son Harris, and Ahmad said he is fine.
Nawaz said that he went to the other hospital and found his son Ahmad Nawaz in the waiting room with his arm injured, and due to heavy bleeding his arm had turned black. “I took him to the operation theatre where his arm was saved by a medic who transplanted a vein from his leg into his injured arm so the flow of blood continues,” Nawaz said.
While in the hospital, he received a call from his cousin who gave him the devastating news that they had found the body of Harris. With tears running down from his eyes, Nawaz said that terrorism shot him in the head and bullets went through his head. Harris died with his boots on, Nawaz said. He recalls that his son’s friends informed him that he was shot when he was trying to save his friends. Refereeing to the attackers of the APS, Nawaz said those who killed his son and 148 others on the day did not deserve to be called Muslim or even human beings.
He said that it was all the love, support and encouragement from the Pakistani nation which gave him the strength to bear his loss. “People prayed for our son in Makkah and said he is shaheed (martyr).” He said terrorists had killed his son, but he was ready to sacrifice his whole family for the sake of the country. He thanked the Pakistan Army and all political parties for their continued support and encouragement to his family. He also thanked ISPR DG Major General Asif Ghafoor for supporting and highlighting the achievements of Ahmad Nawaz at every level.
