This article is shared by Zafar Khizer and Muhammad Waheed.
THE gut-wrenching massacre in Peshawar’s Army Public School has left Pakistan aghast and sickened. All political leaders have called for unity against terrorism. But this is no watershed event that can bridge the deep divides within. In another few days this episode of 134 dead children will become one like any other.
All tragedies provoke emotional exhortations. 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 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 is to change mindsets. For this we must grapple with three hard facts.
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. This is why they also attack airports and shoot at PIA planes. They see these as necessary steps towards their utopia.
Let’s openly admit that the killers are not outsiders or infidels.
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). Dizzied by religious passions, the men roamed the school searching for children hiding under desks and shouted “Allah-o-Akbar” before opening fire. Shot in both legs, Shahrukh Khan, 16, says he survived by playing dead. Another surviving student, Aamir Ali, says that two clean-shaven gunmen told students to recite the kalima before shooting them multiple times.
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.
Those on the state’s payroll that encourage violence against the state must be dismissed. Maulana Abdul Aziz of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid — a government mosque — led an insurrection in 2007 against the Pakistani state. He flatly refuses to condemn the Peshawar massacre. Other state employees have called upon all to not pray for army soldiers killed in action. At another level 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.
Among political leaders, none is more blameworthy than Imran Khan, the icon of millions of immature minds. He has never named the Taliban as terrorists even when they claimed responsibility for various atrocities. That the TTP may be involved in the Peshawar massacre is the first exception, but this is contained only in a tweet. For a man who uses the strongest language against political opponents and has hogged TV channels for months, he has yet to condemn TTP before a national audience. Why the reticence?
It was even worse earlier. In 2009, as the Taliban took over Swat, on Hamid Mir’s Capital Talk he claimed that the Swat Taliban were fighting a war of liberation against the Americans. When I asked why they were fighting in Pakistan and killing our policemen and soldiers, he accused me of being an American agent and then, later, attempted to physically attack me. Readers can google this video.
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Asma Shujaat
· Seven Kings, United Kingdom
I don’t know what happens to souls when people die, it is believed that they go to a place called heaven, paradise. But what if heaven is unprepared, what if heaven says,
“Oh beautiful souls of Peshawar, your time is not yet, you need to live some more, you are young, you are innocent, you are angels in human form, you embody goodness, you are the ambassadors of heaven, your fieldwork on man’s earth is not done yet. God sent you down for a reason, because you are perfect, you have the capacity to do wonders, you are so beautiful, there are so many who love you, your PARENTS want you back, your city wants you back, your country wants you back, the world wants you back.”
The children look at heaven’s gate and say,
“But we have nowhere else to go, the winged angels that brought us here said this is our home now.”
Rayaan (heaven’s gate) opened wide, there was soulful music and billions of souls gathered around to welcome the contingent, led by the youngest. The large contingent was wearing school uniforms; they walked in silence, their heads held high. And then a soul standing on the side felt wetness in its eyes, on its cheek. Tears, but that is a phenomenon of the body and not the soul. The soul looked up to see billions of souls wiping their eyes. And then the soul looked down to see billions wiping their eyes on man’s earth. Today we cry together.
The large contingent left for heaven, arrived at heaven, was given a hero’s welcome at heaven, but how did we treat them here, in man’s world?
I am a parent, you are a parent, and I sometimes wonder if politicians can ever be parents, in the real sense?
They may give birth to little humans but do they actually feel the emotions of a parent, tears, heartache, protection of its young and, most of all, undying and unconditional love?
Do they feel the need to protect the young? Do they?
Today I need answers to these questions.
We have had heinous school shooting incidents in the US, and other countries around the world where the perpetrators were lone wolves. And though these incidents were gut wrenching every time, we still must accept the reality that lone wolves can slip through the cracks and can be overlooked by the society and the government. But the crime committed in Pakistan on Black Day does not fall in the same category. Pakistan claims to have the sixth largest army in the world, Pakistan claims to have an elected government, Pakistan claims to have a viable opposition, Pakistan claims to know who the insurgents are, Pakistan claims to know what the problem is, and the Pakistan I come from knows how to solve this problem; it just doesn’t want to.
There are organised terrorist organisations running amuck in Pakistan, they are ugly and have the audacity to walk on the streets of Pakistan in broad daylight. With the sixth largest army in the world, how is that even happening? How is that acceptable? And this is where I give the disclosure that the civil services are thought useless, hence my reference to the army.
How do terrorist organisations become so organised, who is letting them become this organised? And if this is not the time for cleansing then when is it? They massacred our children today, they made it personal, they hit us where it hurts the most, they broke the spirit of every Pakistani today, every Pakistani. I, like millions of Pakistanis, shed tears today the way I did when my parents died. That is how much it hurt and more.
When children bleed, the country has failed. When children are left unprotected, the government, provincial and federal, must be held accountable. When the entire civilian population of a country cries a river, it is time for introspection. When there are tears in heaven, it is a very sad day on man’s Earth.
God bless the souls who left us yesterday and grant their families the strength to bear this loss.
WE, as your elders, should have protected you; it was our job.
We failed you.
PICTURE-
Candles on a National Flag Pakistan High Commission in UK-
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152971900594878&set=p.10152971900594878&type=1&theater¬if_t=photo_comment
A thought provoking article by Pervez Hoodbhoy.
I have to revisit it multiple times.
At present I would say this is one of most objective analysis of the complex situation in Pakistan.
I am not sure what Pervez Hoodbhoy thinks about this point.
But I would say that biggest culprit in Pakistani quagmire is Pakistan Defense Forces.
Defense forces will keep Kashmir dispute alive.
The use of terrorist groups in Kashmir and Bombay plus Indian Parliament attacks serves Pakistan Defense forces interests.
Pakistan cannot win a conventional hot war against India.
By using terrorist groups against India is the most effective way to put pressure on India.
The tragedy is that Pakistan damages it’s own legal position on Kashmir among international community.
TF USA affiliates what do you think about Pervez Hoodbhoy article.
Let us hear from you!!
Marwan Majzoob.