The massacre of our children

Letter December 19, 2014
It is a shameful, extremely embarrassing, collective failure of the institutions we fund through our taxes

TURBAT, KECH: Over the last few decades, our country has faced several attacks by the terrorists. For a long time now, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Fata have witnessed militant violence and the targeting of schools. According to an International Crisis Group report, in the period from 2009 to 2012, between 800 to 900 schools were attacked in K-P and Fata. However, I do not have any words to express my feelings about the recent attack on the students of Army Public School in Peshawar. The attack which killed countless innocent students was an attack believed to be one of the bloodiest in the history of Pakistan. December 16, 2014 is one of the darkest and blackest day for every single person in Pakistan. No doubt, in the present time, our country is in dire need of peace, unity and access to education. But instead of any positive news, we are getting dead bodies of our students and teachers. Finally, the question which has been raised in everyone’s mind is: who is responsible for this attack and how were the terrorists able to enter Peshawar and attack the school? Who will answer the millions of questions that we have? Will the leaders bother to take responsibility? If not responsibility, will they bother to take some kind of initiative? I believe that it is because of the failure of our political leaders, security forces and intelligence that the terrorists are able to carry out their heinous acts anywhere and everywhere. It is a shameful, extremely embarrassing, collective failure of the institutions we fund through our taxes. If the security forces and intelligence agencies are sincere about their duties, then it will be impossible for terrorists to enter big cities and attack educational institutions and massacre our children.

Bahram Sayad

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19th,  2014.

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