The World Must Unite To Wipe Terrorists Out
By Archana Dalmia
19 December 2014
Black arm-bands and a two-minute silence seem like token gestures in the face of the brutal deaths of 132 innocent schoolchildren in Peshawar’s Army Public School, who lost their lives to Taliban guns on Tuesday in one of modern history’s worst militant attacks.
I say this not to criticise those who wish to express empathy with the families of the dead children, but only to emphasize the seriousness of this attack.
We need more than mere expressions of grief. We need consolidated political and military action and a united India-Pakistan front to smite out terror.
Horror
This is the first time that armed Taliban have planned an attack on a school in Pakistan, their own country. No holy book, no religion, no faith and no cause can ever support and require the killing of innocent children; this is a new low even for the Taliban.
As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon aptly put it, this was, “an act of horror and rank cowardice”.
This attack was different from a group of militants seeking asylum in a school or hiding a cache of weapons in school premises - this was a revenge attack. Fresh statements issued by the Taliban indicate that they wanted the army to feel ‘the pain of losing children’ since they claim that the army had targeted their children and wives in a crackdown on terror earlier this year in North Waziristan and the nearby Khyber area, led by Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif.
The silence of the political elite during this crackdown will most likely change now, as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledges to ‘avenge the Peshawar attack.’ However it took the death of 141 civilians to ignite these passions.
Such a response from the Taliban should have been anticipated, both by the army and the government, after its military crackdown. The attack was planned down to the minutest detail and took place when the children were busy in their class rooms. A car bomb went off nearby causing a distraction, and seven terrorists scaled the school walls.
Surviving eye-witnesses state the terrorists were clean shaven, dressed in black, and armed to the teeth with AK 47s, grenades and bomb-enable suicide vests. They had food and provisions to last them for many days.
In the minutes that followed, militants kicked open doors and opened fire, not discriminating in firing on children and teachers alike. Many bullets found their mark and some terrorists even hunted down groups of children who were trying to escape.
A single survivor from a group of ten describes the desperation with which they were trying to escape. Shahrukh Khan, 17, said from his bed in the hospital: “We heard the sounds of firing, suddenly a gunman had entered my classroom and opened fire at random. As I hid under a desk, I saw my friends being shot, one in the head and one in the chest. Two teachers were also killed, I was powerless to do anything,” says the youth.
Innocence
When I was 17-years-old I only had to worry about passing my math test, hoping that my friends all liked me and my mother had packed my favourite lunch-snack. I can only imagine what it must feel like to watch your classmates and teachers being slaughtered before your very eyes at such a tender age and the kind of scar that will leave on his young mind.
Thankfully, it was not long before the Pakistani army swung into action and the six terrorists were killed on the spot - but the seventh one blew up his bomb-enabled vest, taking the lives of many students around him.
This is not an act of ‘Jihad’, but one of brutal terror that cannot find any echoes of empathy. Such an act can only be condemned again and again, for no religion let alone Islam will support the death of innocence or the opposition of knowledge and freedom.
Tears
Through this veil of tears, the shining face of Malala Yousafzai swims into focus, reminding us that being silent is not the way to achieve change. It is sad and perhaps even predictable that the ink on her Nobel Prize has barely dried when this fresh attack by the Taliban has left rivulets of rivulets of tears and blood in its wake.
It is heartening that Malala survived the attack on the Taliban, and her words are all we have to hold on to right now: in her Nobel Prize speech the 17-year-old said: “The terrorists tried to stop us…Neither their ideas nor their bullets could win. We survived. And since that day, our voices have grown louder and louder.”
However, the pile of coffins, the blood soaked clothes, and the grieving families are all rather overwhelming right now and it is hard to take solace from these brave words.
We are left with questions: Can this grief and outrage be channelled? Will Pakistan have a plan to deal with terror and finally crack down in a manner that leaves no room for more attacks?
The writing is on the wall, it is time for Pakistan to take a tough stand on terror. It is time to behead the beast that keeps raising its head, even if this means posting the army at schools, mosques and churches. Even if this means suspending normal life for the next coming months.
In fact the New Year's resolution for Pakistan, India, the US and all global forces who have suffered attacks at the hands of terrorists should be only one thing: Wipe out terror.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2879967/The-world-unite-wipe-terrorists-out.html#ixzz3MJtfzyW0
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/the-world-unite-wipe-terrorists/d/100578