PESHAWAR: As bullets flew around and suicide bombers blew themselves up one by one in the face of a courageous counter assault by the Special Services Group, the workers of Rescue 1122 were dangerously close to the battle scene to whisl< away the dead and the wounded. It was heroic.

`The commandos repeatedly asked us to stay away from them for our safety but we were determined to rescue the injured students of Army Public School immediately,` said a worker of Rescue 1122.

Sharing his experience of the deadliest day of his career, he said that it didn`t come in his mind even for a while that a bullet could hit him in the 10-hour long rescue operation while working closely during exchange of fire between SSG and militants.

Dr Mohammad Ayaz, the director operation of Rescue 1122, told Dawn that his team provided first aid to 120 wounded students on the spot after their evacuation and in the ambulance while shifting them to the hospitals.

He said that 94 bodies were also shifted by the rescue workers.

`Initially a student informed Rescue1122 about the incident and sought help,` Mr Ayaz said. He added that 18 ambulances of Rescue 1122 were moved to the school immediately. All ambulances were equipped with the first aid equipment, he said. Around 18 ambulances of Edhi and six of Al-Khidmat Foundation also participated in the rescue operation.

Mr Ayaz said that unconscious wounded students were immediately provided oxygen inside the ambulance. The blood oozing out of the wounds of students was stopped through bandage available in the ambulance, he added.

The rescuers were divide d in several groups and deployed at different spots to minimise casualties if militants hurled a hand grenade at them or opened firing on them, he said. `I personally managed traffic from school to the road because traffic police werenot allowed inside the school,` the director operation said.

Mr Ayaz said when the terrorist inside the auditorium was killed, the rescu-ers immediately moved in while shooting continued in the nearby administration block of the school. Most of the students were killed and wounded inside the auditorium, he said.

`Our ambulance is like a mini hospital,` Kamal Shah, emergency officer of Rescue 1122, told Dawn. He said that many wounded students were saved because they were immediately provided treatment inside the ambulance.

During the hours-long rescue operation, he and his colleagues were courageously rescuing the students.

`However, I couldn`t sleep the entire night and was weeping while remembering the crying students,` Mr Shah said. He added that same was condition of his other colleagues whose eyes had turned red due to a sleepless night.

The official said that it was different than other terroristincidents because the victims were children.