'Locals' treachery, betrayal led to 2014 Peshawar school massacre'

A judicial commission formed to probe the 2014 Peshawar Army Public School massacre said that the tragedy could never have taken place if some local people had not given shelter to the terrorists, it was reported on Saturday.

"Had our own people not provided shelter to the terrorists, the militants would have never succeeded in their nefarious design. But it is abysmal that our own blood played hand in glove with enemies," The Express Tribune quoted the commission's report unveiled on Friday on the order of the Supreme Court.

"The local people of village Tehkhail could neither identify nor report movement of the foreigners. Six terrorists were residing in the same village with the help of local people," it added. On December 16, 2014, heavily armed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists stormed school and killed 145 people, mostly schoolchildren.

The Peshawar High Court had formed the single-member commission headed by Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan on October 12, 2018, on the orders of the Supreme Court. The 3,000-page report contains statements of 132 people, including 101 witnesses, 31 policemen, Pakistan Army personnel and other officers. It furthe noted that no intelligence agency can be successful as long as one segment of society has sympathy with the enemy for one reason or another.

"Admittedly, if the public would provide them (terrorists) shelter and weapons then agencies would be at the mercy of (such) powers. I can perceive with honesty that one's own blood and flesh committed treachery and betrayal, the result would always be devastating," it said.

The report said no agency could outperform the impact of any attack effortlessly "when infidels are within".