M. M Khajooria
The Army Public Schools, for obvious reasons merited adequate security cover. Plans of action should have been put in place to deal with terror attacks. Was there any such plan devised and school children rehearsed in response in the eventuality of an attack? If not, who should be held accountable for the criminal negligence and punished? Surely the matter can not be allowed to be pushed under the carpet. And this is neither the first not the last attack on school children in Pakistan or else where for that matter. The positions taken by the main players would obviously and decisively impact the response to the on-going terrorism in Pakistan and crafting of a comprehensive and multi-dimensional counter.
Muhammad Khurasani, the Taliban Spokesman shamelessly admitted in a phone interview that “the militants had targeted the Army Public School because it caters to the sons and daughters of serving army personnel although some civilian pupils also attend.””Our shura” he said “decided to target these enemies of Islam right in their homes so they can feel the pain of losing their children”.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared in unequivocal terms on Tuesday itself that ‘we will avenge every single drop of our children’s blood’. “The time has come for the entire nation to rise against the terrorists,” the Premier asserted during his visit to Corps Headquarters, Peshawar.” the Peshawar school carnage has renewed resolve of the whole nation against the scourge of terrorism” he concluded
After initial hesitation in line with his image as a sympathiser of the Talban avoiding to criticize them by name Imran Khan – the former cricketer whose PTI party governs in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province did ultimately condemned them and lent his support to Nawaz Sherif in the war against terror.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif told Geo TV that Peshawar school attack had extremely saddened him and it took their resolve to new height. He vowed to go after terrorists till final elimination.
“All tragedies provoke emotional exhortations” wrote eminent political commentator Parvez Hoodahoy (It wasn’t the final atrocity”-Dawn, 17th, Decmber, 2014). But nothing changed after Lakki Marwat when 105 spectators of a volleyball match were killed by a suicide bomber in a pickup truck. Or, when 96 Hazaras in a snooker club died in a double suicide attack. The 127 dead in the All Saints Church bombing in Peshawar, or the 90 Ahmadis killed while in prayer, are now dry statistics. In 2012, men in military uniforms stopped four buses bound from Rawalpindi to Gilgit, demanding that all 117 persons alight and show their national identification cards. Those with typical Shia names, like Abbas and Jafri, were separated. Minutes later corpses lay on the ground.”. “If Pakistan” he went on “had a collective conscience, just one single fact could have woken it up: the murder of nearly 60 polio workers – women and men who work to save children from a crippling disease – at the hands of the fanatics. Hence the horrible inevitability: from time to time, Pakistan shall continue to witness more such catastrophes. No security measures can ever prevent attacks on soft targets.” “The only possible solution” he asserted “is to change mindsets. For this we must grapple with three hard facts.” “The hard facts” he mentioned lay at the very core of any realistic erception of terrorism and constituted the very soul of an honest and determined response to their depredations.
Parvez Hoodbhoy listed them as fallows;
“First, let’s openly admit that the killers are not outsiders or infidels. Instead, they are fighting a war for the reason Boko Haram fights in Nigeria, IS in Iraq and Syria, Al Shabab in Kenya, etc. The men who slaughtered our children are fighting for a dream – to destroy Pakistan as a Muslim state and recreate it as an Islamic state No one should speculate about the identity of the killers. Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani released pictures of the eight ‘martyrs’, justifying the killing of minors with reference to Hadith (a horrific perversion, of course).”
Second, Pakistan must scorn and punish those who either support terrorism publicly or lie to us about the identity of terrorists. Television anchors and political personalities have made their fortunes and careers by fabricating wild theories. For example, retired Gen Hamid Gul and his son Abdullah Gul have adamantly insisted multiple times on TV that suicide attackers were not circumcised and hence not Muslim. Though body parts are plentifully available for inspection these days, they have not retracted earlier claims.
At another level” he significantly pointed out “is Jamaatud Dawa’s supremo, Hafiz Saeed. He blames India for the Peshawar massacre and, ignoring ironclad evidence, misguides Pakistanis about the identity of the enemy”.
Third, if Pakistan is to be at peace with itself then it must seek peace with its neighbours and begin disassembling the apparatus of Jihad. The bitter truth is that you reap what you sow. Today, massive militant establishments hold the Pakistani state hostage. They run their own training centres, hospitals, and disaster relief programmes. When Sartaj Aziz, adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, said that Pakistan was not going to target militant groups which “did not pose a threat to the state”, he accidentally spilled the beans. In fact he was merely restating Pakistan’s well-known zero-sum paradigm – we live to hurt others, not to better ourselves.”
“While bewailing the murder of our children, let us acknowledge that Pakistan’s soil has been used time and again for inflicting grief and sorrow across the world. Today it is not just India and Afghanistan who accuse us, but also China and Iran” he concluded.
Parvez Hoodbouy has spoken the unvarnished truth with rare clarity, integrity and realism. It should be hoped that Pakistan political class and its powerful army would take cognisance of his projections and re-examine and re-craft country’s anti- terrorist and external relations policies accordingly. Such a shift will enable Pakistan to ward off the biggest ever challenge to its very existence as a nation state. In such an eventuality, support of India and other neighbouring countries in the war against terror can be taken for granted. At the most important and emotional, brightened chances of victory over terrorism may be the best tribute to the young martyrs of Peshawar Public School.
(Concluded)
