one of them suddenly aimed their gun towards me because I was standing right in front from a distance and shot me on the face the first bullet I received on the face um I still remember that I screamed I screamed really loudly because that was probably one of the first bullet that broke my teeth and my maxilla and that pierced through my face [Music] so I was born in the Northwestern sides of Pakistan and in a city called beshawar I think since my childhood my parents wanted me and my siblings to get quality education so
my school life was my my whole life probably like um it was it was the only place where I would go it's probably one of the best schools in the city and I had friends there my best friends which were kind of like my second family because you know you have breakfast with them in the morning because it would go so early it was a military school so it would start really early and we had to like wake up at five in the morning and then go there and you have lunch with them so it
was kind of like a second family to me are you able to just kind of touch on the political situation in Pakistan at this time so I think um around 2007 I would say things started going wrong in the especially in Peshawar that was the city most affected by terrorism and uh before that the Taliban or the terrorist group when they came to the cities like bishar and and there was like there was um probably Bomb Blast and suicide bomb attacks on a daily basis and um my family my parents my mom and my dad
there would be worried all the time they would be watching news all the time and the day I realized that something was going wrong in in our city was when um I think there was a few people in our neighborhood and that died in a Bomb Blast in the suicide bomb attack and when I saw their family and their family members and Friends crying and shouting and that's when I realized that things are not going really well as I thought around me and how old were you at that point I was around like probably around
10 8 10 9 something like that it was the day of 16 December where it started as a normal day and I went to school as per routine sat with my friends we had a breakfast we were chatting about a normal stuff Cricket politics uh WWE everything so we were discussing these things and then I was I was the head boy at school at that time so one of my teachers came up and they told me that we are having a first aid lecture in the auditorium so I should tell all the students in year
rates and year 9 that they should be heading to towards Auditorium and I think most of the students I saw they always celebrating and were kind of happy that they're going to miss lessons today due to the first eight lectures so um we we went to the auditorium and everyone sat down and the first aid lectures started and things things were going normal at that time in I still remember my friends because I was the head boy so I was kind of like on the stage and my friends from the audience would make like these
funny faces to make me laugh and um then all of a sudden we heard a noise there was a there was a noise uh it was a loud noise and um I think some of the some of the students um just jumped like they were they weren't expecting it and the others started laughing at them that they got scared and uh then we again continued like no one really paid attention to that and then uh we heard those noises again and this time it was consistent like those started getting louder and louder and getting more
consistent that's when everyone in the auditorium like was silenced and everyone was looking up to the teachers that what is happening and um I think at that time I was assuming that it was a military drill and most of us too so were most of the students and but when those sounds started getting even more louder that's when um I had a bit of a doubt and everyone was like a legend like scared well like what is happening and I looked at one of my teachers there in the auditorium I was like what's what's happening
and uh they told me that oh don't worry it's nothing it's it's just gonna be okay and I was like okay but what is this like we don't know and then our teachers started locking all the doors in the auditorium uh and um that's when like most of the students in there started getting more scared now and they started getting more anxious like why are the teachers locking the doors and I saw a few people like with shadows standing outside and when they realized that the door was locked they started kicking it they kicked it
once and when they kicked it the second time the door broke and they came in everyone started going under their chairs I still remember I could see everyone because I was still on the stage and I I looked at my teacher and I was a bit like scared and I was like what what is happening like just tell me like what's happening like and then they started shooting they started shooting all of a sudden they started shooting people at the back and and I was in a shock I I couldn't believe my eyes I was
I was just standing still I couldn't move I didn't know what to do my I just went blank one of them suddenly aimed their gun towards me because I was standing right in front from a distance and shot me on the face the first bullet I received on the face I still remember that I screamed I screamed really loudly because that was probably one of the first bullets that broke my teeth and my maxilla and that pierced through my face and I I fell down on the floor and I still couldn't believe it like what
was happening I was I was still in a shock and I was I was in pain I was in shock and I I didn't know what was happening around me and then I saw a few of my friends getting shot in their heads because I was as I was lying down and and my brain was just wasn't accepting this situation I was like this is this is not true this is a dream like this can't be true like my my friends just died in front of my eyes like they they were just talking to me
like a minute ago and they are no more with me and here I am dying like about to die as I was lying down there I was I was I don't know what what happened but I just said to myself that no I'm I'm just gonna try to survive I'm uh I'm gonna give it my best like I'm still breathing I was I was telling myself that this was I I was just putting my hand on my mouth and uh the first time I tried to put my hand on my face my hand went in
because it was open it had to open up so when um I just kept telling myself because I had no one to console me so I was I just kept consoling myself that I'm still breathing I'm still breathing and I was I was just breathing and I was like I just putting my hand on my mouth and and then again I'm like I'm still breathing I'm still breathing it's I'm still alive one of them um saw me like that I was I was still moving and I was still doing moments and and they shot me
again um they shot me again they kicked me to see whether I was still alive um and they were they were checking every student in the auditorium they were they were they were going around and they were checking everyone whether if if anyone would move they would start shooting at them again my friend lying down there in front of me like me lying down on the floor looking at them and they they were dead they were no more and I was I was just about to to die um I I still remember that after like
uh a few minutes like five ten minutes um they left the auditorium and at that time I was lucky that my senses were still working I could still see things a bit blurry I could still hear things I could still think and um I was I heard some people saying that they have left some students saying in Auditorium they were mumbling to each other like they had left so I was trying to wave my hand I was trying to like call like someone so that they can help me get up and move uh uh but
I think it was it was a chaotic situation and it was it was a shock for everyone as well they were kids themselves so there was there was no one to help uh they they just started running outside and um at that time I I didn't realize that I was shot on my leg and my arm as well because the pain in my face was so much that I didn't pay any attention to my leg or my hand like and my wrist as well because they kicked me when the terrorist kicked me my wrist tracked
kind my right wrist cracked so I didn't pay attention to any of those injuries because I had no idea I had them my whole Focus was on my face that uh my because it was it was so painful when there was no one to help me I I tried to drag myself I tried to crawl I tried to drag myself I couldn't get up I couldn't stand up I tried to but I couldn't so I tried to drag myself and I tried to crawl and somehow I managed to get out of the auditorium there was
no one to help me there was there was a class about six to eight meters away from me and I was trying to get there because uh it was an es7 class and I was trying to get get there but I had lots I had lost so much blood and I had so so many injuries that it was it was really really hard for me to even like move one meter and when I tried to do that it took everything out of me those six to eight meters took everything out of me and I managed
to reach that place I managed to reach the door and then my body had lost all its strength I was just telling myself that I shouldn't just close my eyes shouldn't let myself go to sleep if if someone is coming here to rescue me or these people they would think that I have died so I have to stay awake to let them know that I'm still alive and there was there was a tree a big tree outside of school and I was looking at that tree and um when the fires when the shooting was still
going on you can still hear the shooting you could still hear the Bomb Blast and the birds were flying from that tree there was capturing so um I still remember I was I was I just said to myself that I wish I was one of these and I could fly away from here like them easily after 10 minutes there was a military person that came and they picked me up from the door and they they saw me lying down in front of the door and they picked me up and they put me in an ambulance
I had um been shot with bullets on my face it was multiple bullets on my face and um my hand my arm and my my right knee was shot with bullet as well and I had got like some splinters at the back of my neck it was from the blast and stuff um and I had with with my face injuries were the most severe injuries that I sustained I lost all my appetites my maxilla my jaws and the base of my nose was completely broken and it still is and the right side of my face
was completely blown away so at first my family didn't know that it was me because they still had doubts because I had sustained injuries on my face and my face was completely covered with bandages so in the initial days my family was was was really really confused my dad had recognized me from a t-shirt that he gave me a few days before the attack so that's how he recognized me during that whole time had you realized like what was actually like going on at that time to be honest I still had no idea when I
got short when I went to the hospital I had no idea why these people shot me of my friends I have had nightmares even when I after a few months when I was in in my room in the hospital I would have nightmares I would have dreams and I kept on looking at the door when I was in ICU because that shock when I saw them breaking in the auditorium I kept on looking at the door in hospital as well that someone might break through that and just come in again and I only knew about
a few of my friends that I saw at that time that died but I didn't know about most of them and I didn't know what had happened to them that time I was about like 12 10 years old and those friends had spent like about eight years of their life with me so that was that was my whole life for me it was a short life so it was it was my whole life for me and I had known them for my whole life today so when I when I saw them that their names were
on the list that people had died the first thing that was shocking for me was oh when I saw that 132 kids in our school were killed and uh my heart just sank like I was like I was just praying that please none of my best friends be on it like I was I was just praying and um when I when I saw their names and all of their names were on the list uh that's that's when I I just went in a shock I I couldn't believe it at that time I was as like
this is not true I I haven't seen them I haven't even seen their bodies yet like they they can't like when when sometimes when you just don't see your loved ones like like that you you don't really accept it you your brain your heart doesn't accept that they know more with you I would I would be crying I'd be telling myself that you know what if I would have done this whatever I would have laid down and I could have survived I wouldn't have got shot and then I could have saved my friends and and
the fact that you know I was I was the one that uh called most of them to the auditorium uh because I was the head boys told by the teacher so that guilt was kind of like really really like um making it difficult for me uh and I was I was It was kind of killing me from inside my mom goes to me and she's like uh what what will happen if you cry now or if you uh just you know go in that darkness that you know you just has nothing to do with life
now what will happen will your friends come back with that uh will it change anything and I had no answer to that and then she tells me that instead of crying and sitting here what you should be doing you should recover you should try to recover work on your recovery and do something for them do something that you know know other people or none no other religious friends should be martyred or like kids like that you should be getting up and doing something for them going through like a near-death experience especially so young how do
you think that's changed your perspective on on life I think uh before this incident I had no purpose and I mean I was young as well but you know I didn't realize the value of life I didn't realize the value of Education uh that that's what it gave me like a sense of realization how important this thing that I'm doing and I'm taking for granted is I was I I'll just say simply that you know before this incident like I just wanted to live for myself and now I want to live for others what would
you I suppose want people to know about your classmates that lost their lives I think I just want them to know that you know they were they were there to get education they they want there to fight anyone and they were they were innocent they were all innocent and uh they were killed brutally for just getting education they were killed brutally for just uh wanting a future a bright future for themselves they were Brave they were they had they all had Bright Futures they were all someone was future army officers some of them were future
politicians businessmen if they all had aspirations they all had dreams that were just shattered in in a few minutes that were just taken away by a few gunshots in life you know you life is not what you think will happen life is what happens to you so it's a hard hard pill to swallow but sometimes you just have to accept and live with that reality don't ever take the opportunities or the education or you know whatever life opportunities you have for granted [Music] I bought this of people um being fed to these dogs I was
so terrified
