Amir Khan's importance as a boxer and fighter goes way beyond the Olympic medals or world titles he has won.

As Britain’s best-known and most popular Muslim, adored by millions of fans of all denominations, the 28-year-old’s words carry particular weight in these troubled times when the world has been revolted by the slaying of 132 children in an attack on a school in Pakistan.

Since he won Olympic silver in 2004 at the age of 17, Bolton-born Khan has tried to be a healing figure with his fights attended by everyone from working-class white fight fans to imams from the mosque.

VIDEO Scroll down to see what Khan has donated to the massacred Peshawar school

Amir Khan recently beat American Devon Alexander in their welterweight clash in Las Vegas

Comparisons with Muhammad Ali, the black Muslim who was loved by white America, are obvious. In Pakistan, where his grandparents came from, his fame is possibly even greater, with virtually the entire population of 180 million knowing who he is.

The Taliban attack on Peshawar has affected Khan hard, particularly as he is now married with a baby daughter.

While everyone else contemplates a turkey hangover, the welterweight will head east to Pakistan between Christmas and New Year’s Day, to visit extended family and help rebuild the country’s shattered morale.

But Khan was brought back down to earth by the news of the massacre of schoolchildren in Pakistan

Many in his position — with a young family and the hope of a summer superfight with Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao or British rival Kell Brook — would not want to be dragged into the religious or political sphere but Khan cannot hold back about his feelings on hearing that gunmen had taken so many lives at the army school.

He has donated the £30,000 pair of shorts he wore in last weekend’s victory in Las Vegas against Devon Alexander to help rebuild the school and ignores the potential personal danger in speaking out.

‘They were innocent kids, they had nothing to do with anything and the Taliban killed them. They are killing their own people,’ he says without hiding his emotions.

‘Setting the teachers on fire in front of these kids, these people are ruthless and have no brains, and I can’t believe they would do something like this. It upsets me and it’s disgusting to see.

‘You never think people would be so sick to do something like that.

Khan announced that he will donate the £30,000 shorts he wore during in his last fight to charity

‘I am definitely going to go there. There are not many role models in Pakistan; I want people to see Amir Khan as a good person, a good Muslim, a good Pakistani and that they should be like me.

‘Some people won’t even talk about the Taliban because they don’t want to get into the politics of it but I’m open, I just want to speak the truth.

‘I’ll be going to Pakistan in the next couple of weeks and this could be threatening for me to even talk about it. But I just want to speak the truth.

‘I have a little girl. Imagine me sending her off to school and then finding out she had been killed.’

Khan’s grandparents moved from Rawalpindi to England in 1963 but he still feels a special affinity with the country. He visited Pakistan in 2005 to hand out food parcels following a devastating earthquake in Kashmir and donated and raised money to rebuild schools and hospitals.

The 28-year-old's shorts will be donated to the school attacked by the Taliban in Peshawar, Pakistan

In addition to his pride in Bolton and Britain, he is a practising Muslim, praying at the mosque every week, observing Ramadan and has visited Mecca for the Hajj. ‘These attacks set Pakistan back,’ he says.

‘Pakistan is a really nice, good country. I want the people there to see my personality and try to get kids to follow in my footsteps.

‘I’m a nice person, I meet people, I’m respectful. These people [the terrorists] are doing the opposite.’

Khan is aware of his unique role during a period of history where religion often seems a battleground rather than a force for good. His daughter Lamysa is seven-months-old and it might be wiser for Khan to ignore what is going on and concentrate on family and career, but he feels he cannot ignore the opportunities his position brings.

Relatives weep over a 15-year-old student who was killed during the massacre at the school in Peshawar

‘It’s tough, but boxing has educated me and made me smarter,’ he says. ‘I can say things. I am the way I am, I’m not fake. I have a heart, I have a good family around me and I’ll speak the truth.’

Of a potential backlash, he says: ‘You can’t hide away from life, and anyway everything is in God’s hands. I do a lot of charity work there and I want to rebuild the school that has been affected.

‘It’s important to go there now and send a statement to a lot of people that Amir Khan is going and he’s going there to make a difference.’

In the ring, Khan — who has won 30 of his 33 fights — dreams of fighting Mayweather, renowned as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

So far, Mayweather has been dismissive of the challenge.

A policeman stands beside empty coffins at the hospital after the school was stormed by terrorists

If he continues to do so, a summer fight in London against Pacquiao or Brook is likeliest.

Promoter Eddie Hearn says he has already booked Wembley Stadium on June 13 in anticipation of putting on Khan-Brook.

‘He’s wasting his money,’ says Khan, who does not like Brook — though bookmakers are not so sure.

Pacquiao, 38, is also an option. ‘I believe he would come to England to fight me,’ says Khan.