Letter: Peshawar Tragedy

Bahram Sayad

Over the last few decades, our country has faced several attacks by the terrorists. For a long, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA have witnessed militant violence and targeting of schools. According to the international Crisis Group report, in the period from 2009 to 2012, 800 to 900 schools were attacked in KP and Fata. However, I really do not have any words to express the recent attack on the students of Army Public School of Peshawar. The attack which killed more than 141 people including 132 school children, 8 staff members and the principal was really the most barbaric incident in my lifetime. The attack is believed to be one of the bloodiest attacks in the history of Pakistan.

16th December, 2014 is one of the darkest days in history of Pakistan. No doubt, in present time our country is in dire need of peace, unity and education. But instead of these, we are getting the dead bodies of our students and teachers. Finally, the question raises in everyone’s mind that, who is responsible for this attack and how the terrorists were able to enter in Peshawar and attack the school? I believe that it is the failure of our political leaders, security forces that the terrorists are able to do anything anywhere. If the security forces perform their duties vigilantly then it is impossible for the terrorists to enter in the big cities and attack the educational institutions.

Published in The Balochistan Point on December 18, 2014