One of them certainly 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.
So I was born in the northwestern side of Pakistan,
in a city called Peshawar.
I think since my childhood, my parents
wanted me and my
siblings to get quality education.
So my school life was
my whole life probably.
It was the only place where I would go.
It was 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 we 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.
[ERIN] Are you able to just kind of touch
on the political situation in Pakistan at this time?
So I think
around 2007, I would say, things started going wrong
in there, especially in Peshawar.
That was the city most affected by terrorism.
And before that, the Taliban or the terrorist group,
when they came to the cities, like Peshawar,
and there was like- there was
probably bomb blasts and suicide bomb attacks
on a daily basis.
My family, my parents, my mom and my dad,
they would be worried all the time.
They would be watching news all the time.
The day I realized that something was going wrong
in our city, was when
I think there was a few people in our neighborhood
that died in a bomb blast, in a 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.
[ERIN] And how old were you at that point?
I was around like, probably around 10,
eight, 10, nine, 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 our breakfast, we were chatting about normal stuff,
cricket, politics,
WWE, everything, so we were discussing these things
and then- 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 eight
and year nine that they should be heading
towards auditorium.
And I think most of the students I saw,
they all were celebrating and were kind of happy
that they're gonna miss lessons today,
due to the first aid lectures, so
we went to the auditorium
and everyone sat down,
and the first aid lectures started, and
things were going normal at that time.
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.
Then all of a sudden we heard a noise.
There was a noise.
It was a loud noise.
I think some of the students
just jumped like they were, they weren't expecting it.
And the others started laughing at them
that they got scared.
Then we again continued,
like no one really paid attention to that.
And then we heard those noises again,
and this time it was consistent,
like they started getting louder and louder,
and getting more consistent.
That's when everyone in the auditorium
was silenced and
everyone was looking up to the teachers.
What is happening?
And
I think
at that time,
I was assuming that it was a military drill
and so were most of the students.
But when those sounds started getting even more louder,
that's when
I had a bit of a doubt, and everyone was
a little like scared as well, like, what is happening?
And I looked at one of my teachers there in the auditorium.
I was like, what's happening?
They told me that, oh, don't worry. It's nothing.
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.
And
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 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 looked at my teacher and I was a bit scared.
And I was like, what is happening?
Just tell me what's happening.
And then they started shooting.
They started shooting all of a sudden.
They started shooting people at the back.
And I was in a shock.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
I was just standing still. I couldn't move.
I didn't know what to do.
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 fell down on the floor,
and I still couldn't believe it, like what was happening.
I was still in a shock.
And I was in pain, I was in shock,
and I didn't know what was happening around me.
And then I saw a few of my friends getting shot
in their heads because as I was lying down,
and my brain was just, wasn't accepting this situation.
I was like,
this is not true. This is a dream.
This can't be true.
My friends just died in front of my eyes.
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 don't know what happened, but I just said to myself that,
no, I'm just gonna try to survive.
I'm gonna give it my best.
Like I'm still breathing.
I was telling myself that this was-
I was just putting my hand on my mouth.
And the first time I tried to put my hand on my face,
my hand went in
because it was open. It had opened up.
I just kept telling myself
because I had no one to console me,
so I just kept consoling myself that
I'm still breathing, I'm still breathing.
And I was just breathing, and I was like
just putting my hand on my mouth again and again.
I'm like, I'm still breathing, I'm still breathing,
I'm still alive.
One of them
saw me, like, that I was still moving
and I was still doing movements,
and they shot me again.
They shot me again.
They kicked me to see whether I was still alive.
And they were checking every student in the auditorium.
They were going around
and they were checking everyone,
If anyone would move,
they would start shooting at them again.
My friend lying down there in the front of me,
like me lying down on the floor looking at them, and
they were dead. They were no more,
and I was just about to die.
I still remember that
after like a
few minutes, like five, 10 minutes,
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.
I heard some people saying that they have left,
some students saying in the auditorium.
They were mumbling to each other.
They were like, "They have left."
So I was trying to wave my hand.
I was trying to call someone,
so that they can help me get up and move.
But I think it was a chaotic situation
and it was a shock for everyone as well.
They were kids themselves, so
there was no one to help.
They just started running outside.
At that time
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, and
my wrist as well because
they kicked me, when the terrorist kicked me,
my wrist cracked.
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
because it was so painful.
When there was no one to help me,
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 a class
about six to eight meters away from me and
I was trying to get there because
it was a year seven class,
and I was trying to get there, but
I had lost so much blood,
and I had so many injuries that 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 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 a tree, a big tree outside our school,
and I was looking at that tree.
When the fires, when the shooting was still going on,
you could still hear the shooting,
you could still hear the bomb blast.
The birds were flying from that tree.
They were scattering, so
I still remember
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.
They saw me lying down in front of the door,
and they picked me up and they put me in an ambulance.
I had been shot with bullets on my face.
It was multiple bullets on my face and
my hand, my arm, and
my right knee
were shot with bullets as well.
And I had got like some splinters at the back of my neck.
It was from the blast and stuff.
And I had with my face injuries
were the most severe injuries that I sustained.
I'd lost all my upper teeth, 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.
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 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.
[ERIN] During that whole time,
had you realized what was actually going on?
At that time, to be honest, I still had no idea.
When I got shot, when I went to the hospital,
I had no idea why these people shot me or my friends.
I have had nightmares.
Even when I- after a few months when I was
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.
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 my whole life for me.
It was a short life, so it was my whole life for me.
And I had known them for my whole life, so
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,
my heart just sank.
I was just praying that, please,
none of my best friends be on it.
I was just praying.
When I saw their names
and all of their names were on the list,
that's when I,
I just went in a shock.
I couldn't believe it at that time.
I was like, this is not true.
I haven't seen them.
I haven't even seen their bodies yet.
Like, they can't. Like when-
sometimes when you just don't see your loved ones,
like that, you don't really accept it.
Your brain, your heart doesn't accept
that they're no more with you.
I would be crying.
I'd be telling myself that, you know,
what if I would've done this?
What if I would've laid down and I could have survived?
I wouldn't have got shot
and then I could have saved my friends.
And the fact that, you know,
I was the one that
called most of them to the auditorium,
because I was the head boy, I was told by a teacher,
so that guilt was kind of like really, really
making it difficult for me.
It was kind of killing me from inside.
My mom goes to me and she's like,
"What will happen if you cry now or if you
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?
Will it change anything?"
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 no other people or
no other of Waleed's friends should be
murdered or killed like that.
You should be getting up and doing something for them.
[ERIN] Going through a near-death experience,
especially so young, how do you think that's changed
your perspective on life?
I think
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.
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'll just say simply that, you know,
before this incident, I just wanted to live for myself
and now I want to live for others.
[ERIN] 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
they were there to get education.
They weren't there to fight anyone
and they were innocent.
They were all innocent.
And they were killed brutally for just getting education.
They were killed brutally for just
wanting a future, a bright future for themselves.
They were brave.
They all had bright futures.
They were all- someone was a future army officer,
some of them were future politicians, businessmen.
They all had aspirations.
They all had dreams
that were just shattered
in a few minutes.
That were just taken away by a few gunshots.
In life, you know,
life is not what you think will happen.
Life is what happens to you.
So it's a 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 whatever life opportunities you have for granted.