Mourning the loss

Pakistan, a country already in shambles, has just witnessed another bloody massacre of 141 innocent people by the Taliban militants on Tuesday.

The gunmen broke into the Army Public school in Peshawar and opened fire randomly at the children and burnt alive the teachers. 132 out of the 141 died were children, all under 15 years of age. The heartbreaking and brutal incident has shocked the world compelling even the neighbouring Afghanistan, the birthplace of Taliban, to shed tears. Hundreds of bodies were found from the school auditorium alone as the students tried to flee from the attack. The Tehreek-e-Taliban claimed the responsibility immediately after the attack with the spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani warning of more similar attacks. He justified the attacks as a revenge saying that the Pak government has been long targeting their innocent families through aggressive military operations in Waziristan; so they “want them to feel the pain." The statement reinforces that the attack was a well planned operation. After the shocking incident, Prime Minister Nawaz Sheriff announced lifting a moratorium on death penalty. Sheriff who came to power last year had made peace negotiations with the Taliban that went futile, launching air and ground attacks on the militants along the Afghan border. The government has come under more pressure to take steps to counter the insurgents.

The death toll has risen to 148 and mass funerals are underway. Pakistan has witnessed several similar episodes of shocking cruelties earlier. Attacks against a religious institution in Islamabad while Musharraf was in power, the September 2013 attack on a church that claimed the lives of 80 people, the Hazara-Shia attacks in Quetta that killed 120 people and the 2007 October 18 bomb explosions in Karachi that killed around 130 innocents including the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto are a few of several instances of brutal insurgent attacks. Baitullah Mehsud founded Tehrik-i-Taliban but was killed in 2009 drone attacks by the US. Hakimullah Mehsud who took the reins too met with the same fate in 2013. Maulana Fazlullah then took up the responsibility of the group. The association of the different political and military powers with the terrorist group and the funding aggravates the matter.

The terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and IS are US made, the puppet outfits designed and created to aid America in conquering the oil rich Middle East and other countries that would benefit them. The US has a long history of backing the terrorist groups and therefore the well planned slaughters bring no surprise to the rest of the world. The most powerful nation in the world either funds and backs or launches aggressive drone attacks on these outfits depending on whether they favour the American political interests. Permitting the violence and weapons to rule the world would only destroy the remaining peace and harmony. The brutalities reveal the true face of America and are definitely an eye opener to the rest of the world.