|
POINT
December 16, 2014 would be a black day in the distasteful history of modern day terrorism. In Peshawar, 7-8 Tehrik-e-Taliban, Pakistan (TTP) militants entered an Army Public School and massacred over 130 children. This was in revenge for the Pakistan army’s anti-Taliban operation called ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ launched to capture the strong-hold of the Taliban in Waziristan. The Pakistan Army is fighting the TTP in the Swat valley and South and North Waziristan after mollycoddling it for years. The Army had arrived at a convenient conclusion that the Afghan Taliban was the good Taliban which should be helped in capturing power in Afghanistan and the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) was the bad Taliban that needed to be exterminated. TTP is considered an enemy because it refuses to be controlled by the Army and runs its own domain in the mountainous areas of North West Pakistan. Thus far the army considered it to be a strategic asset to be used against India. Now that it is an enemy, TTP militants have been killed in large numbers by the Army: TTP is now seeking revenge. Besides, the mainland terrorist groups like L-e-T, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen, etc. do not create any trouble in Pakistan and are its strategic assets against India. |
COUNTER POINT
For the terrorist, children are a pawn to be used to advantage. The
children who were killed in Peshawar belonged mostly to the families of army
officers and the TTP punished the parents through their children. Which
religion teaches this kind of revenge? The heartlessness of the deed exposes
the spiritual bankruptcy of the militants. Their ways were always reprehensible
but this is a new low even for them. There are politicians who would oppose
extermination of the virus; Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf Pakistan (TIP) has
always opposed military action with the argument that the army should not be
used against its own people. On our side too, the Mani Shankar Iyers of this
world would always find excuses for the horror and play duplicitous games but
the reality is that mad dogs need to be eliminated. Those who wail in the name
of human rights of murderers should think where their kind-heartedness could
lead. In all this tragedy, some like retired Gen. Musharraf found the gumption
to blame India for the Peshawar attack. How low can one-upmanship sink?
Pakistan is now in a paradoxical position where it launches an all out
offensive against the Taliban while being hosts to Taliban’s soul-mates like
Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Nakhvi, the plotters of the infamous Mumbai
attack (26/11) |