Boxer Amir Khan will donate a pair of shorts to raise money for the rebuilding of a school in Pakistan, where the Taliban killed 132 schoolchildren on Tuesday.
Amir Khan, who is of Pakistani heritage, has vowed to donate the $47,000 shorts that he sported during his second welterweight title fight against Devon Alexander. “I’m going to be donating them towards what happened in Pakistan. I want to rebuild the school and strengthen the security over there,” he said. The waistband of the shorts has 24-carat gold woven through it.
A deadly attack
The attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School was the Pakistan Taliban’s deadliest yet, leaving 9 adults dead as well as 132 children. Teachers initially believed that the gunshots they heard were part of an army training exercise, but Taliban militants then burst into the teaching buildings, massacring staff and students at random.
The school is located at the edge of a defense colony, with one side of the compound close to an Afghan refugee camp which is known to provide a base for militants on missions. Just five months ago a bomb was found on the school lawn, but despite the wishes of the teachers, authorities did not take any steps to improve security.
An important donation by Amir Khan
Khan’s reaction to the school massacre is made all the more powerful by the fact that Khan became a father this May, and he compared the situation in Pakistan to the security of his life in Britain. “We are very lucky in England, we have good security and I will be able to send my little girl to school and know she will be fine, but in Pakistan you cannot do that.”
Following his title fight against Alexander, Khan spoke out on his continued desire to take on unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather next year. It remains to be seen whether Mayweather will agree to the fight, having chosen Argentinian Marcos Maidana as his opponent when the opportunity last arose.
