"I don’t ever get scared or have fear even though I step into a ring and I fight for a living... but the thought of what happened in those classrooms sent a shiver through me.
"It’s so sad. I just left me imagining how the kids were killed and how there would have been dead bodies all over the floor. It gave me a bit of a wake-up call, to be honest. We live in a very safe country in England and we’re very lucky. We cannot forget the people who live in Pakistan."
Perhaps those ties Khan has, with family in Pakistan, made the visit even more harrowing. Khan’s grandfather, Lall, who had been in the army there, came to the United Kingdom in the late Sixties, like many Pakistanis. The family had been landowners from Rawalpindi. "The whole experience brought tears to my eyes," says Khan, who donned the traditional shalwar kameez for his visit. "These are children who didn’t do anything to anyone. They were innocent children.
"Being a fighter, I’m seen as a tough guy, but things like this do hurt me. Having a little girl myself, I just imagined sending my little girl to school and what effect it would have had on me hearing that this had happened and that she was killed in school. What a way of dying – it’s unthinkable what the families must be going through."
After defeating the American Devon Alexander in Las Vegas on Dec 20 – hailed as his most complete performance – Khan flew to Islamabad and from there travelled by helicopter to Peshawar with an army security detail.
What he witnessed will stay with him for life. "I went to see some children in hospital and I spoke to several parents. Some were telling me how their children had just eaten breakfast and left for school and they were very happy and good kids. They couldn’t believe what had happened and were so traumatised.
"These kids were tortured and then killed. Some of the kids had been tortured mentally, too. They saw teachers get killed first or even burnt alive.
"They then knew that they were going to be shot in the head. It’s horrific what they must have gone through, all in a matter of minutes.
"Luckily, they didn’t get to the infants, the really young children, because there was a door there that one teacher locked. By the time they tried to get through that door, the army had come in."
"All I could say to them was not to give up. I told them to go back to school and work hard and do something with their lives.
"The children said they would definitely go back to school and that they weren’t scared by it all. That is incredible."
Few leaders or celebrities have visited the site of the atrocities, but Khan felt compelled to do so in spite of the ongoing danger in such an unstable area. "I went there, and also met with Imran Khan [the former Pakistan cricket captain now a politician] and we spoke of the terrible events.
"There were security fears for me going there, but I had eight army guards and plain clothes officers looking after me. Regardless of the risks there might have been, I felt I had to go," he says. "When I got the news about what happened in Peshawar, I wanted to do something for them. They have been through such heartache and agony. I wanted to show my appreciation and my respect to the school, the parents and the kids. I’m just a boxer from England, but I’ve got a responsibility to play my part."
Khan, who is an ambassador for Oxfam, added: "If I can do anything to build awareness and show people that these places cannot be forgotten, I will. I’m just doing what I can do."
The fashion shorts – encrusted with gold and worth £30,000 – which Khan wore for his contest with Alexander will be auctioned off this year, the proceeds given to help reconstruct the school and community.
"I hope I’ll get 50 or 60 thousand dollars for them. I want to donate them to rebuilding the school there and improve the security around the area. I know it’s for the right reasons," he says.
Pursuing a fight with boxing’s No 1 box-office attraction Floyd Mayweather Jnr in 2015 is the aim of the British boxer, but thus far there has been no clarification on whether the American will fight Khan – or indeed Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino politician and prize-fighter.
If the Mayweather fight does not materialise, Khan says he will pursue Pacquiao, who is also fighting poverty in the Philippines as the Congressman for Sarangani Province.
"Manny and I both do things for other people outside boxing and if we fought we could give a percentage of the purse to charities. I’m not a politician like him but I want to do good works with my status. If Floyd Mayweather doesn’t want to fight me this year, Pacquiao and I could fight – we could get it on in the USA, in the UK, in Dubai, or even Macau, where he fights once a year. And perhaps if the fight between me and Pacquiao takes place, we could do something for the better, and show what boxing can do for the world."
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