Pakistan vows revenge one year after Taliban school massacre

Pakistani teachers and students hold burning candles during a vigil to pay tribute to the victims of the Peshawar school massacre of December 16, 2014, as the country marks the first anniversary of thShow more

Peshawar, Pakistan // Hundreds of students, some who look as young as six years old, pump their fists in unison on the Pakistan school grounds where Taliban gunmen massacred 134 of their classmates a year ago.

“O mother, those who stole your dreams from you,” they sing. “O mother, I have to go and take revenge from them: I have to go and educate the children of my enemies.”

The 4.5-minute video released by Pakistan’s military is playing on almost every television station to mark the first anniversary on Wednesday of a school massacre that left 151 people dead - most of them schoolchildren.

Schools across the country were closed on Wednesday as part a day of national mourning and a precaution against militant attacks tied to the anniversary, said government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani.

Prime minister Nawaz Sharif called for vengeance under portraits of children killed by Taliban bullets as the country marked its worst-ever extremist attack.

Families of the victims along with military and political leaders attended an emotional ceremony at the army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar to mark the assault, which mostly claimed the lives of schoolchildren and has been termed a “mini-9/11” for the country.

Relatives were accompanied by students bearing images of their loved ones as they spoke one by one of children with bright smiles who worried about their hair and handwriting but had dreams of being artists and engineers.

“My children, today I make this promise to you, that I will take revenge for every drop of your blood,” Mr Sharif said, addressing the victims directly.

The ceremony, which a military official said was attended by some 2,500 guests including celebrities and sports stars, was broadcast live on state television.

Powerful military chief Raheel Sharif and opposition leader Imran Khan were also in attendance.

Earlier, the parents of the 134 children killed in the hours-long siege visited their children’s graves in Peshawar.

“We think a lot about the students who lost their lives,” Abu Bakar, a teacher who was shot three times as he threw himself in front of fleeing children during the siege, told AFP, saying the loss was “something that cannot be described”.

“This should not have happened to them, they were innocent students,” he said.

“They came here for studies, they were not at war with anyone.”

On social media, Pakistanis were changing their profile pictures to an image depicting an Army Public School uniform with a bloody bullet hole resembling a poppy, and a caption reading: “Some stains don’t wash out”.

Pakistan deployed paramilitary forces and police in major cities for the anniversary.

In Peshawar, the area surrounding the school was designated a red zone, and army helicopters hovered as hundreds of soldiers guarded main junctions.

Army Public Schools across the country were open for ceremonies marking the anniversary, even though a security official said they were “particularly under threat”.

One year on, a veneer of normality has returned to the Peshawar school, where children play while soldiers stand atop recently fortified walls.

“All the people of Pakistan are with us and they are trying to support us and helping us to move towards the future and to just forget this incident,” said Muhammad Hamza, 17, a student whose brother died in the attack.

But the trauma lingers for many, with parents of the slain children saying they are still seeking answers about how the security apparatus could have failed them so completely.

* Agencies