"Parents Are Still Crying": Iranian Diplomat Recalls Minab School Attack

Parents of children killed in an attack on a primary school in Iran are still struggling to come to terms with their loss, with some families unable even to find the bodies of their children, Iranian diplomat Abdul Majid Hakeem Elahi told NDTV.

Elahi said the school was attacked twice on February 28, killing 168 innocent children. He said some of their bodies have still not been found, and parents do not have a grave where they can go and mourn their children.

"Till now, some of the bodies of these children couldn't be found, and their mothers, and also their fathers, still they're crying because they don't have any graves for their children to go there and cry," he said at the NDTV World Summit.

Recalling the start of the new academic year in Iran on October 1, Elahi said families gathered with notebooks and books for their children, but the children were no longer there. "They brought a lot of notebooks, books for their children, but there was no one, and now they are suffering," he said.

Elahi said that the United States had not apologised for the attack. "Unfortunately, till now, the United State of America didn't apologise for this big mistake in attacking our primary school," he stated.

He also mentioned that the United Nations had sent an investigation committee to look into the incident. According to him, the investigation report stated that 125 children were killed in the attack.

He said the suffering of the families should not be ignored and appealed to people across the world to speak out against such incidents.

"We call upon all free people, all human being to have their statement against such tragedy, and should not repeat it whether in Iran or in any other countries," he said.

Elahi appealed to people across the world to speak out against the killing of innocent children and raise their voices so that such incidents never happen again, in Iran or anywhere else.