Daniel Pearl's parents honour victims of Peshawar school attack

Recalling Pakistanis reaching out to them after Pearl's murder, parents felt strong obligation to repay the kindness

Parents of American journalist Daniel Pearl who was killed in Karachi in 2002, extended their support and sympathy for the 150 people killed, including 134 children, in a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan attack at an army-run school in Peshawar.

Judea and Ruth Pearl attended on Tuesday an event at the Pakistani consulate in Los Angeles organised for the victims of the grisly attack, according to Fox News.

As hundreds of children perished in one of the bloodiest insurgent attack in the country in recent years, condemnations poured in from across the globe against the heinous attack but were sadly familiar to the Pearls whose son was killed by the Taliban as well.

"It is the norm, you get accustomed to it," said Judea Pearl, a computer science professor at UCLA who with his wife signed a condolence book for the victims.

"You get accustomed to read about it in the newspaper or see another video, it becomes part of our life. You forget that it wasn’t normal. But they managed to make it a normal part of brutality. Brutality is penetrating our bloodstream without us knowing."

Further, Daniel’s father recalled Pakistanis reaching out to him after his son was murdered, and felt a strong obligation to repay their kindness.

"I remembered such gestures helped us in our tragedy, made us feel like the world is with us in the sense that the world is making a step not to allow it to continue," he said.  "But the world did allow it to continue. But at that time it felt like a turning point, and every grieving family should feel that way. That the sacrifice made was a turning point."

Speaking at the event, Pakistan Consulate General Hamid Asghar told said, "I fear we have been brought to a point where the eradication of this vermin is the only way forward.”

Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal when he was abducted and beheaded in Karachi in 2002, while researching a story about militants. A graphic video showing Pearl’s decapitation was delivered to the US consulate in the city nearly a month later.