Unrest ignored: After adults fail, children try to melt hearts of stone

Parachinari orphans and children miss their families; hope government will help them.


Peer Muhammad June 07, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


Over four dozen children orphaned by the militancy in Parachinar on Monday held a protest demonstration in front of the National Press Club in Islamabad to press the government to meet their demands.


Having seen their older kith and kin fail to influence the Government of Pakistan to help them, the little children, some barely knee-high, were holding banners and placards while chanting slogans like “Death to the Taliban”.

“We cannot go home in our summer vacations because the Peshawar-Parachinar Road is closed and militants try to hurt people on the way home,” said little Asghar Ali, who has lived in Rawalpindi for the last year-and-a-half. He said that his father was killed by the militants and his mother sent him here to attend school with his cousin. “I have not been home in more than one year,” he said with tears in his eyes, “I miss my mother. I miss my brothers and sisters.”

Asghar was not alone.

“I cannot go to home like my classmates and I am missing it so much,” said Qaiser Ali, a fifth-grader.

“I don’t know why the militants killed my father. He was a peaceful man. He loved me. He wanted me to go to school. Now I don’t even have the money to pay my school fee,” said Muhammad Irshad. He was upset that the government was not taking any action to help the people of Parachinar.

Muzamil Hussain, another little student, described the Taliban as “very brutal and cruel” while noting that they even killed women and children.

“They hate children!” he maintained.

The children appealed to the president, prime minister and the interior minister to take immediate steps for the safety and the security of people in the besieged area, as they already face a life of uncertainty due to the blocked road and threats posed by the Taliban.





Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2011.

COMMENTS (11)

Ali | 12 years ago | Reply this is a game od ISI. due to america pressure of operation in north waziristan the ISI want to settle pro-pakistan taliban in another area. so the kurram agency (upper kurram) is well suited for taliban. by this the ISI will save the pro-pkistan taliban and other side the army will operate in waziristan. but the turi tribe dont want that the taliban comes to their area and they resist strongly. therefore the road is blocked jsut for the turi tribe but not for the govt and other tribe. by this the govt pressured the turi tribe to allow the taliban. geographically the kurram agency is best area for taliban to attack in afghanistan their are three sided border with afghanistan
Dr. Irshad Ali | 12 years ago | Reply Faraz these apologists have the habit of total denial. They will always negate any fact about the Taliban which masses would not accept. Watch for example Taliban Khan aka Imran Khan giving no details but only declares this an American conspiracy. He should clearly demarcate who is fighting on the American side? The Taliban in persuit of the tribes or the tribesmen sacrificing lives for the land?
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