Teenage boy shot in Peshawar school massacre played dead to survive the Taliban

A boy who was shot in December's Pakistani school massacre "played dead" to survive while a Taliban gunman searched the room and trod on him, his mother has disclosed in an interview with the BBC.

Ahmad Nawaz, 14, was shot in the arm during the attack by the Tehrik-i-Taliban on the Army Public School in Peshawar on 16 December. Ahmad's brother, Harris, was one of 145 people killed in the attack.

Following a campaign in Pakistan, the government agreed to fund Ahmad's medical treatment in Birmingham. He was flown to the UK last week and is to set to undergo surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham soon.

The boys' mother, Samina Nawaz, said Ahmad "has nightmares of Kalashnikovs and the Taliban chasing him". She added: "He told me that the Taliban returned to the room where he was hiding.

"He pretended to be dead as he had already been bleeding. He said the gunman stepped on him with his heavy boot. Then he [the gunman] fired some more and set the room on fire, but he escaped."

During the attack in December, Taliban terrorists climbed the walls of the school's grounds before opening fire on children and staff. It was one of the worst atrocities in the country's recent history.

Ahmad's father Mohammad has revealed that he found Ahmed "lying on a hospital bed covered in blood" when he went to visit his wounded son.

Samina recalls: "I didn't know what to do. My husband was screaming. It was hard to believe we were getting ready to bury one of our sons. For the first month, Ahmad was in agony. He screamed all night and he still can't sleep."

The tragedy has also had repercussions for the youngest of the Nawazs' sons, Umar, who was not in school during the massacre. Nevertheless Umar says that he is too scared to return to Pakistan: "I'm worried. I'm scared of the Taliban. I'm scared they will kill us."

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was also treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital hospital, after she was shot by the Taliban in 2012.