Army Public School Terrorist Attack - Perceptions and Experiences of school children of Karachi

OBJECTIVES: To explore the experiences and perceptions of school children of Karachi after the Army Public School (APS) attack. METHODS: It was a qualitative transcendental phenomenological study. Data collection started nine months after the attack, in September 2015, and continued till November 2019. Study participants were school children from Army, Government, and Private schools. The sampling strategy was convenience. Data collection of 53 students was done by focus group discussions and in depth interviews. Data analysis was performed using the phenomenological analytical techniques of Colaizzi. RESULTS: Inductive analysis of the qualitative data gave rise to three themes - The journey beyond fear, Response of parents and schools and Role of media. CONCLUSION: The study concluded that the APS attack was the source of emotional distress and fear for the school children of Karachi as they personalized the event due to the nature of the attack. Immediately after the incident, they were in anger, grief, and fear, which altered their daily life activities and caused apprehensions in socializing and attending school. However, later they became highly motivated to study and gained courage. This motivation is revenge from terrorists as they wanted to keep children away from schools.