THE SMALLEST COFFINS ARE
THE HEAVIEST
There are times when the
barbarity we witness is so gut wrenching and horrific that we are left without
words. Tuesday’s attack by Taliban militants on the Army Public School in
Peshawar has left the entire country enveloped in a thick shroud of silence and
grief, united in our disbelief that anyone, even the militants who have killed
and hurt so many in this land, could stoop so low as to kill so many innocent
children. At the time of writing this, news reports are coming in that as many
as 141 people have been killed, 132 of them students, with scores more injured.
These students were helpless, targeted and eliminated by Taliban suicide
attackers and gunmen determined to inflict as much damage as possible to the
heart and soul of this nation. Reports tell of how militants stormed onto the
school premises during assembly time in the morning, with one detonating his
suicide jacket, and opening indiscriminate fire on the hundreds of children.
They went from classroom to classroom shooting the children in the head at
point blank range — one survivor told of how children belonging to army
backgrounds were picked out and gunned down.
The siege lasted till the
later hours of the evening with reports telling of seven militants being killed
by the army. Terror stricken parents gathered outside the school and hospitals,
looking for their dead and injured children. They had left their homes in
school uniforms and were retrieved in body bags. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP) has claimed responsibility. There is no way the country and its
leadership can let this one go; there is no way a solid, chapter-turning
decision cannot be made after what is, no doubt, a national tragedy.
For the last many months,
we have been urging the government to reassess its counterterrorism strategy,
to take the right steps and initiate the right policy so that we do not witness
this kind of atrocity. Last year, the PML-N government drew up the National
Security Policy (NSP) to show that it was ‘serious’ in countering the growing
terror threat in the country. Much noise was made about the strengthening of
the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) to coordinate and assemble all
efforts to fight the terror threat. However, we have yet to see any concrete
steps taken to bring the moribund NACTA to life or the NSP to fruition. In this
very space we have been cautioning the government and military to not be
complacent or think that the terror threat has abated since the start of
Operation Zarb-e-Azb in June this year. The military operation was expected to
knock the militants onto the backfoot and degrade their communication and
organisational structure but there was always the promise of a blowback. Despite
these constant reminders, the authorities were lulled into complacency.
December 16, 2014 was the culmination of that false sense of security and we
are now gasping for breath. This has been a year of some high profile targets:
Karachi International Airport, Wagah border and now the children of Peshawar.
Where is the famed NSP? Where is NACTA now?
The government and
military must understand once and for all that we are at war. There are no two
ways about it; the nation is paying the cost in the blood of its people and now
its children. What is needed is a proper counterterrorism strategy that will
pr-empt terror attacks before they happen; there is no point in providing
security and protection after the fact. Intelligence gathering, security forces
and the police are all needed to bring together this kind of umbrella
organisation. What is needed is a long-term response. What is needed is a final
end to this terror. What is needed is a fitting response to the blackest day we
have ever lived through.
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