Horror-stricken Pakistani school children show signs of trauma
The survivors of last week's Taliban attack on an army school in Peshawar are struggling to come to terms with life after the incident.
Arsalan Khan, 14, a student of Army Public School and College, told Dawn newspaper: “I could not sleep well since last night as I have been seeing images of black shoes and pointed guns in my dreams.
"I was rescued by forces. I was in the classroom when we heard huge shots. I ran out and hid myself in the bathroom. Later I came to know that two of my classmates were shot dead by terrorists. I am shocked why they targeted our school,”he said.
Parents also complained of their children suffering from psychological trauma and insomnia following the gruesome attack on innocent schoolchildren at the Army Public School and College which killed at least 132 children and 16 adults.
"My ninth grader daughter Aleena Shahryar has refused to attend her school located on Warsak Road, though her school is far away from the ill-fated Army Public School. She will miss her detention examination," Shazia Shehryar, a mother of three, told Dawn.
"She (her ninth grader daughter Aleena Shahryar) continuously cried and could not sleep even a wink the whole night. She is still shivering. We want to take her to a city hospital but she resists it too.” - Shazia Shehryar, a mother of three, speaking to Dawn, a Pakistan newspaper.
It was earlier reported that Dawood Ibrahim, 15, is alive only because he attended a wedding on Monday night and his alarm did not work in the morning, reported IBN Live news.
So he skipped school and escaped the fate of his classmates, who were all killed.
He attended the burials of six of his closest friends in one day. The shock has rendered him speechless and he was showing no emotion when he was interviewed a few days ago.
"Dawood isn't talking to anyone, he isn't talking at all," his elder brother Sufyan Ibrahim told IBN Live news.
"He is in judo and is a tough child but he is showing no emotion at all right now. No one from his class survived. Every single one of them was killed."
One father posted this photo of his son from his hospital bed with a Victory sign.
One survivor, Aqif Azeem, 18, told the BBC's Shahzeb Jillani how students took refuge in classrooms and how he tried to save other pupils' lives, but three of them "died before my eyes." You can watch the interview here.
Source: Dawn, IBN Live, Twitter
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