Eye-witness: Taleban killed my neighbour's son

My neighbour's teenaged son has been killed by terrorists,' said Jamal Abdul Nasser, a teacher in Pakistan. His school is located next door to the Army Public School in Peshawar, where 126 people, many of which were students, were gunned down by the Taleban.

'When I came back from home from school, I was in total shock when I learnt that the boy next door whom I had met on Monday evening is no more. He was such a polite and handsome boy. I get teary eyed when I remember his smiling face. A pall of gloom has descended in the neighborhood. There is police everywhere and as of now all schools in the area will remain closed,' said Nasser.

According to him, there are over 20 schools located in the area where the killings took place.

'This is not the first time that such an incident took place over here. There was an incident when a school bus with children was being held hostage. It is very unfortunate that this incident took place. Majority of pupils who were gunned down were from Grade 9 and Grade 10. They were attending a workshop in the school auditorium when the terrorists opened fire,' said Nasser, who had locked his school as soon as he heard the firing from the Army Public School.

I live close by to the school area and now I am at home and all my school pupils have gone to their respective homes with their parents who were allowed to come to the school gates to pick them up. The exchange of firing between the police, army and terrorists are still going on. Some children are still held hostage inside the school,' added Nasser.

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'Me and my pupils are now staying put inside our school premises,' said Jamal Abdul Nasser, a teacher from a school located next to the Army Public School in Peshawar, where over 120 people were killed in an attack carried out by the Taleban.

Nasser said when he heard firing from the school next door he was outdoors in the lawns.

'I heard the first firing around 11am (Pakistan time). I knew that something was amiss and ran indoors and got the school main gates locked. Safety of the children were the priority for me at that time,' he said.

According to him, the schools are located in the cantonment area, as a result of which the entire area was cordoned off by the army and police.

'Within minutes the entire area was blocked. No one could get outside on the road. The situation is really tense and the students in my school are very, very scared. We do not know what is going to happen next. What I got to learn is that two terrorists have been killed and one of them was a suicide bomber. The identity of the terrorists is yet to be established. Not a single parent has been so far allowed to come inside the school or even in the vicinity. They have been taken to a nearby area not knowing whether their children figure in the list of those dead,' said Nasser.

The author is a teacher in Pakistan.

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