Yesterday while watching the horrific images of dastardly attack on a military school in Peshawar (Pakistan); I was overwhelmed with a plethora of thoughts & emotions. While my heart went out for the martyred & injured innocent children in this tragedy; my brain kept on protesting about the futility of those condemning this attack & crying foul, crying victim citing this horrific incident as excuse.
Depending upon our nationality (and our allegiance of course) we tend to categorize, subcategorize & interpret the actual act of TERROR into good terror, bad terror, as a fight for freedom etc. etc….Hence when it comes to problem of militancy, insurgency, (Pak supported) terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir, one quickly labels it off as Kashmiri people’s fight for self determination & freedom struggle. This hypocrisy goes even to the extent of claiming 26/11 attacks to be mock staged by Indians themselves to grab attention of the west!! Sadly a completely different set of labels & parameters are used when addressing events of Iraq, resurgence of Taliban on Pak-Afghan border, rise of the ISIS, war in Syria, war in Ukraine (leading to a passenger flight being shot down very recently).
This glaring partiality was also highlighted by Hon Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi during his historic UN speech, when he reiterated his stand that there is no such thing as good terror or bad terror, good Taliban or bad Taliban & any act of terror must be dealt with firmly without any allegiance to culprits race, religion, nationality. But sad enough to say, even after yesterdays attack Pakistani politicians including PM Nawaz Sharif are shying away from naming the culprits & instead are trying to get away by using generic terms like act of terror, being victims of terror etc. Even the self proclaimed experts of West are making statements like US intervention, Indo-Pak cooperation to wipe out terror etc. etc. The basic unanswered question as per me is whether killing innocent civilians is any less horrific or dastardly than killing innocent school going children? Beheading of army personnel, attacks in J & K are any less soul sapping or sickening than yesterdays attacks?? Its time to call a spade as spade & take tough measures to eradicate this menace of violence called as terrorism.
As famously quoted by former US President George W Bush after 9/11 attacks, ”If you harbor terrorists, then you are a terrorist! Either you are with us or with the terrorists!” This dictum applies squarely to Pakistan. Their own home grown brand of terror has now started threatening their own existence. If they refuse to acknowledge this fact & act accordingly; I am afraid Pakistan may cease to exist in coming few years