11 Years Since Peshawar School Tragedy: Pakistan And Its TTP Problem – OpEd
Eleven years have passed since December 16, 2014, yet the wounds of the Army Public School tragedy remain as raw as ever. The massacre of 147 innocent lives—122 of them children—was not merely an attack on a school in Peshawar; it was an assault on Pakistan’s conscience, its future, and its very right to exist in peace. As the nation marks the 11th anniversary of this darkest chapter, remembrance must go hand in hand with clarity—clarity about responsibility, about the enemy, and about the unity required to ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated.
The statements by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif rightly reaffirm Pakistan’s uncompromising resolve against terrorism. Their words echo a national consensus forged in blood: there can be no dialogue, no justification, and no soft corner for those who murder children. The APS martyrs are not statistics; they are a permanent moral compass reminding the nation of the cost of complacency, confusion, and division.
However, as Pakistan reflects after eleven long years, an uncomfortable reality must also be confronted. Over time, a range of narratives has emerged within the country that seeks to deflect responsibility for the APS attack—some even blaming the Pakistan Army or state institutions for what was, in essence, a calculated act of barbarism by terrorists. These narratives, whether driven by political agendas, ideological hostility, or misinformation, have obscured a critical and undeniable fact: the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) accepted responsibility for the attack through its own public statements, acknowledging that its offshoots carried out the massacre.
This admission matters. It matters because nations that forget the identity of their enemy risk fighting shadows instead of reality. The APS attack was not an accident, not a failure of intent by the state, and not an inside job masquerading as tragedy. It was an act of war by a terrorist organization that explicitly sought revenge against Pakistan for its counterterrorism operations and deliberately targeted children to terrorize society at its core. To blur this truth is to dishonour the memory of the martyrs.
The persistence of counterproductive narratives blaming national institutions serves only one beneficiary: the terrorists themselves. TTP and similar groups thrive on internal discord, distrust, and polarization. When the nation turns on its own defenders rather than holding terrorists unequivocally accountable, it weakens the collective resolve required to defeat militancy. Eleven years later, Pakistan cannot afford this confusion.
President Zardari’s warning—that there can be no leniency for terrorists, their facilitators, financiers, or apologists—is especially relevant in this context. Terrorism does not survive on guns alone; it survives on justification, denial, and ideological cover. Those who rationalize terror in the name of politics, religion, or dissent—while ignoring the explicit confessions of groups like TTP—become unwilling enablers of violence.
The APS tragedy also reshaped Pakistan’s security doctrine. It led to decisive national actions, including the National Action Plan, intensified counterterrorism operations, and an unprecedented civil-military consensus against extremism. While challenges persist and terrorism has not been eradicated completely, there is no denying that countless attacks have been prevented due to the sacrifices of security forces, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement personnel—many of whom have laid down their lives silently to protect others’ children.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s remarks that terrorism is unacceptable under any name or flag reflect a hard-earned lesson. The state’s resolve against “Fitna-e-Hindustan” and all forms of externally sponsored and domestically facilitated terrorism underscores that Pakistan’s fight is not selective; it is existential. Yet, this fight cannot be won by force alone. It requires national unity anchored in truth.
Eleven years later, unity does not mean silence or blind conformity—it means shared clarity. It means acknowledging that TTP remains the core threat, that its sanctuaries, facilitators, and ideological sympathizers must be confronted, and that rewriting history only weakens Pakistan from within. It also means standing with the APS families, whose dignity and resilience transformed unimaginable grief into national strength, not political point-scoring.
The APS martyrs compel Pakistan to rise above division. Their memory demands that the nation speak with one voice against terrorism, reject false equivalences, and resist narratives that blur the line between victim and perpetrator. As Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif noted, their sacrifice is etched into Pakistan’s national conscience. That conscience must now guide action—firm, united, and resolute.
After eleven years, the lesson of APS is painfully simple yet profoundly urgent: terrorism has a name, an ideology, and an organization—and it must be confronted collectively. Pakistan’s future depends not only on remembering the tragedy, but on remembering the truth. Only through unity anchored in honesty can the country ensure that the blood of innocent children was not shed in vain.
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