Ahmad Nawaz: the hero Pakistan needs.

ISLAMABAD: On the fifth anniversary of one of the most painful and the most brutal terror attack in the history of Pakistan, the Army Public School attack of December 16, 2014, I spoke to Ahmad Nawaz. Ahmad, 18, is an APS survivor, currently a resident of the United Kingdom, is studying for his entrance exam for the Oxford University, and doing so much else that his story would be best told in his own words.

"On the day of 16 December 2014, on the day of the attack, I was only 14 years old. My brother, Haris Nawaz was 13 years old. On the day of the attack, I was in the auditorium at APS where most of the students were killed. My friends and I were in the auditorium for [a session of] first-aid training, which was quite unusual. Before that day we had never had first-aid training.

On that first day of training, during the third lesson [period], a group of men with guns and bombs in their hands entered our school. They started shooting children. I was shot after a while [when they started shooting children]. I saw my friends being killed right in front of my eyes. An hour, perhaps an hour and a half later, I saw my teacher being burnt alive right in front of my eyes. I had to see all those horrible things on that day in my school.

I was brought to a hospital. I was in the school for about three hours after I was shot. I had lost a lot of blood. I was in [such] a condition that the doctors thought they wouldn't be able to save my arm. The moment I was brought to the hospital I was taken into surgery. I don't remember anything after that.

I didn't know about my brother's death at that point. I found out about it in the hospital fifteen days after the attack. No one told me. When I finally knew about my brother's death I was heartbroken. I don't even remember how I felt at that point. Just that I was totally heartbroken. I couldn't have imagined [anything like that] ever before. One cannot imagine one's brother or a family member being killed in such a horrible incident.

When I realised that that attack had happened, I couldn't believe it for a very longtime. For weeks, I couldn't believe what had happened. It was an extended dream, an extended nightmare. I had a lot of nightmares in the days after the attack .I used to start shaking. My parents would sit with me to comfort me. It was a very horrible time. I don't think I'll ever be able to erase the memories of the attack.

After the APS attack, we were brought to the UK because of the...