38 1GM Saturday September 5 2020 | the times
NewsSaturday interview
‘The gunman shot my friend
and I realised it was my turn’
it might be a hostage-taking but soon
understood that the reality was far
more grim. “They started moving in
on the lines, shooting people one by
one... I realised they’re just here to
kill us all.”H
e knew that there was
nothing he could do “so I
just lay down waiting for
them to come and shoot
me”, he says. One
terrorist was working his way down
his row. “I was lying on the floor face
down and as I looked up [I saw] he
had shot my friend and I realised it
was my turn. He held the gun half a
metre away from me and pointed it at
my head but at the moment he was
going to shoot I flinched to my right
and I got shot in my upper arm.” He
rolls up his T-shirt sleeve to show a
round scar. “The bullet hit this part
and came out the other side.”
The gunman left him for dead,
“moved on to the next person and
started shooting”. The pain was
excruciating but Ahmad understood
that if he screamed the terrorists
would come back and finish him off.
“Survival instinct kicking in. I thought
if I did make a movement or a noise I
was going to die.” His face wasattack children in school they wanted
to stop people being educated,” he
says. “The fact I’ve got into one of the
best universities in the world sends
them the message that they can’t do
those kind of atrocities and stop us
from reaching new places.”
The 19-year-old has already shared
platforms with presidents, prime
ministers and Nobel prizewinners. He
has addressed UN events, advised
ministers, set up a school for Syrian
refugees in Lebanon and spoken to
thousands of pupils in this country
about the dangers of extremism.
Certificates recognising everything
from his bravery to his debating skills
are proudly displayed above the
mantelpiece in his family’s home. But
he is incredibly modest about his
achievements. When his exam results
were downgraded last month, there
was, he says, “a little ambiguity” about
whether he would get his place at
Oxford, but his main concern was for
his classmates. “To be honest it was
such a chaotic time for so many of my
friends as well, I was just hoping that
everyone was going to be fine.” His
proudest achievement is getting an A
in his English GCSE two summers
ago, less than three years after he had
come to this country able to speak
only a few words. “I was completely
shocked.”
When I arrive for our interview,
Ahmad has been on the phone to the
GP, translating for his mother. She is,
he says, disappointed that he has told
her not to prepare food “because of
Covid”. Instead, he brings in a glass of
water, balanced on a plate, and
carefully arranges the cushions on the
sofa to make sure they are
comfortable for me.
Dressed in sweat pants, with bare
feet and an iPhone, Ahmad looks like
any other recent school leaver. He
enthuses about Nando’s and talks
excitedly about the student societies
he is going to join. “I’m really looking
forward to the Oxford Union. What
kind of university is it where world
leaders come to speak?” But none of
his fellow freshers will have his
experience of terrorist violence.
Malala Yousafzai, who as a schoolgirl
was shot on a bus in Pakistan, has just
graduated from the same Oxford
college that has accepted him, Lady
Margaret Hall. “I spoke to her,” he
says, “she gave me some good advice.”
Ahmad is astonishingly calm as he
describes the moment in December
2014 when gunmen burst into his
school hall where hundreds of
children were gathered for a special
assembly on first aid. “It was 10.30 in
the morning, it’s so fresh in my mind,
the terrorists entered the auditorium
through the back door and just
started randomly firing at the
students.” At first he thought it was
some kind of drill. “Even though
there were a lot of terrorist attacks
happening in the city and the country
no one ever thought a school would
be a target.”
He and his classmates were near
the back of the hall so there was no
way of escaping. Instinctively he
dropped to the ground. “The moment
they started shooting I just lay down
under the chair on the floor and so
did my friends in the same row. Some
children tried to run but a lot of them
were shot dead. Near the front doors
there were piles of dead bodies
because as they were trying to run
out they were being shot.” He thoughtpretending to be dead but he was
severely injured and spent weeks in
hospital in Peshawar before being
taken to Birmingham for emergency
surgery to save his arm. He stayed in
Britain, became an anti-radicalisation
campaigner and has now won a place
to study philosophy and theology at
Oxford. “When the terrorists came toA
hmad Nawaz was only 14
when he was shot by a
Taliban gunman during a
terrorist attack at his
school in Pakistan. His
younger brother Haris was one of
almost 150 children and teachers
killed in the December 2014
massacre. Ahmad survived byAhmad Nawaz fled a
Taliban massacre at
school in Pakistan. Now
he is set to go to Oxford,
writes Rachel Sylvester