Dozens of Pakistani schools named after Peshawar massacre victims

Relatives with pictures of Peshawar school attack victims

More than 100 state-run schools in Pakistan have been renamed in honour of students who were killed during the Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar.

Parents have welcomed the move, which so far has seen 107 schools renamed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province – more than 60 of them in Peshawar itself. Tufail Khattak, whose son Sher Shah was killed in the attack, told the Express Tribune: “With schools named after them, the martyred children will be remembered forever. The coming generations will know of the sacrifices our children made for the country.”

The renaming project will be expanded in coming weeks. Regional education minister Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said: “It's an effort to remember sacrifices of those students and courage of their parents and other families.”

Ahmad Khan, 12, who lost his brother in the attack, told NBC News: “It will not bring my loving brother b‎ack to us but at least the school after his name will keep him and his sacrifice alive.”

More than 150 people – most of them students – died on December 16 when terrorists attacked the Army Public School. Students returned to classes in January after schools were closed for four weeks following the massacre.

Last month A World at School launched a 15-point Safe Schools Initiative for Pakistan which has been backed by Prime Minister Sharif and United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown. The report is intended to complement and support current government activities and serve as a basis for a framework to build school and community-based interventions to promote Safe Schools alongside support from the international community. You can read the full report here.