Parents of students killed in 2014 Army school attack file petition against Ehsanullah's escape

Parents of the children killed in the deadly Peshawar Army school terror attack in 2014 have filed a petition in a court here, seeking contempt of court proceedings against those responsible for the alleged escape of the mastermind of the brutal incident from the custody of security forces.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, the former Pakistan Taliban spokesman who was responsible for the shooting of Malala Yousafzai in 2012 and carrying out the deadly Peshawar Army school terror attack, escaped the confinement of security agencies on January 11, according to a audio clip released by him.

In the audio clip, which surfaced on social media on Thursday, Ehsan said that he escaped from the prison as the Pakistani forces failed to keep their promises made to him during his surrender in 2017.

Shuhada APS Forum President Fazal Khan said that he filed the petitioned in the Peshawar High Court seeking proceedings against the top officials.

He said the Army chief, ISI chief as well as the Federal and Provincial secretaries were made respondents.

The petitioner sought contempt of court action against the respondents for failing to follow an order by the Peshawar High Court of April 2018 in which it barred officials from releasing Ehsan.

In the petition filed today, APS parents claim that the respondents had not taken any steps to bring Ehsan to justice even though he had confessed to the massacre at APS along with several other heinous crimes, the Dawn News reported.

Reports in Pakistani dailies, including Dawn and The Express Tribune, showed that Ehsan fled during one of the operations to capture and target terrorists.

So far authorities had not commented on the reported escape of Ehsan, whose current whereabouts were not known.

The Peshawar Army school attack is considered to be one of the most gruesome attacks on children anywhere in the world when 8-10 suicide attackers wearing paramilitary Frontier Corps uniforms on December 16, 2014 entered the school and went from classroom-to-classroom shooting indiscriminately, killing 149 people including 132 students.