Daily Times

A bomb, planted in a horse cart, exploded outside the Shah Faisal Model School in Peshawar on Wednesday, killing a passer-by and injuring 13 people, out of which seven were children. This barbaric act should be an eye-opener for all those who support the militant extremist agenda, perceiving it to be Islamic. The reality is that these terrorists are nothing but heartless, cold-blooded monsters who feel no shame or guilt in taking the lives of innocent children. What could possibly have been the reason to target these innocent children? What threat did they pose to the extremists?

This incident, added to the list of many others of a similar nature, has shown us that the Taliban strongly oppose education, which is the only tool that can actually make the dream of a better future possible. By bombing schools, they are frightening the parents and forcing them to make their children stay at home for the sake of their security. The reason why these terrorists oppose education is that their extremist ideologies are based on hatred rather than logic and education teaches students critical thinking, which can, in effect, neutralise their efforts to spread extremist doctrines. The uneducated masses become fertile soil for them and education becomes the biggest hurdle in their path. Similar incidents, such as the recent bomb blast near a school bus in Peshawar and the numerous bomb attacks on the schools of Swat, corroborate this line of reasoning.

Moreover, this also means that the terrorists have now grown insecure and desperate to show their muscle. With high profile targets becoming more and more inaccessible as the war grinds on, the terrorists have now resorted to targeting softer, more vulnerable segments of society in order to frighten the people and to show them that they are still alive and kicking. However, such heinous acts of violence will not win them the support of the people, rather it will only bring them their wrath and scorn. Indeed, the extremists will lose the support they have been enjoying so far in some sections of society. *