‘Azaad Pakistan’ honoring APS sacrifices

To honor the sacrifices of the students, teachers and staff of the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar, a group of students have come together as “Azaad Pakistan” forum and they are asking students and people from all walks of life to write letters to APS with the aim to convey the APS survivors a message of hope, solidarity and prayers.

Azaad Pakistan is working hard to collect letters in person and on E-mail from people across the globe,on their id“letterstopeshawar@outlook.com”on social media so people can send their messages for the brave children of Army Public School. About 400 letters have been received so far and the number increases by the day. They plan to get the last letters by the 24th December 2015 after which these would be sent to ISPR for onward dispatch to APS .

While speaking to The Nation Harris Bin Saqib, a student of NUST and a volunteer of Azaad Pakistan said, “After 16 December, everyone wanted to give one message to the terrorists, that (is that) we are not afraid. Since then people have been very vocal and stood by the children of APS . Theseletters would tell the students that the nation stands with them even after a year.” Harris further said, “As the dark day in the history of Pakistan is approaching, the air is filled with depression and everyone wants to help the children in every way possible, so we thought this was a good way to reachout to them. Our aim is to bring smiles back on their faces.”

Azaad Pakistan is run byGhalib Khalil a student of Beaconhouse National University who has been running this group for the last three years, and has organized various activities across Pakistan. While speaking to The Nation he said,“When the incident happened last year, we sent letters to APS to show our solidarity. So, we planned of doing it again as this was the best way to communicate with the children. They have gone through a lot which has affected their studies, personalities and life. These letters would tell them that they are not alone and people are standing with them.” He further added, that all those who are writing these letters should not remind them of that horrific day as that is not the purpose rather we only want them to see that we are holding their hands and walking with them in this hard time.

The group Azaad Pakistan has arranged various other activities in the past. When Operation Zarb e Azb started people were eager to show their support for the Pakistan Army, so they started a letter campaign by the slogan “RangLayegaLaho” in which over 8000 letters were sent to the soldiers through ISPR and COAS General Raheel Sharif personally appreciated the group’s efforts.

One of the injured soldier’s on getting the letter said, “Such spirits really warms our blood .... and makes us give every drop of our Blood in order to save our People and Save our Pakistan; we want nothing except trust of our Patriotic Pakistanis and their love;Civilians we love u all are our family... May u and Pakistan live long amen.”

This article was published in The Nation on 16 Dec 2015