Seven perished during their attack on the Army Public School Peshawar; four accomplices have been hanged, and another three were wiped out the same day after a lightning retaliatory strike in the Khyber Agency. That night, one of their facilitators was also arrested from Bahawalnagar. Mullah Fazlullah, their leader, and two more sheltered in Afghanistan are being actively pursued and will meet their evil end sooner or later. Retribution will reach them wherever they are. The gruesome massacre of 150 including 134 defenseless school children and their teachers in Peshawar by the Taliban in December 2014 has few parallels in history. The sheer brutality, overwhelming savagery of the killers and innocence of the children were emotionally and morally devastating. Even hard-baked killers like al-Qaeda felt compelled to distance themselves from the chilling gore. One can only imagine and shudder at the kind of mortal fear, confusion and helplessness that must have enveloped children and their teachers during that most horrific massacre.
In one junior class the assassins mounted the rostrum and asked those from army families to raise their hands. Can any one imagine little children raising their hands in innocent anticipation, then singled out and shot? They butchered children like rabbits, one by one, as the little ones queued up and came out of their classrooms. Which child would not be deeply scarred to see his teacher burnt alive before his eyes and who can fail to pay respects to the lady principal who could save her life but stayed to save the lives of her wards and was gunned down? There were those little angels who came to the same executioners looking for a sister, brother or a friend and were promptly shot with a grisly grin. What about those little souls who were shot at point blank range and then tossed over the boundary wall like slaughtered chicken?
There was that braveheart who took bullets in his body but suppressed his screams to pose as dead in order to save himself and his friend whom he had hid under his hunched figure. One also saw an utterly distraught mother running hither and thither looking for her son whom she had sent to school in the morning. She only recognised his body from a badly mangled ankle with the familiar sock and shoe on. There was another grief stricken mother who kept coming to the school gate day after day to receive her son killed months ago. She would ask every other parent there if he/she had seen her son. What solace can one give to mothers like her? Only sadists of the first order like Mullah Fazlullah and his killer minions can take credit for a mayhem like the APS massacre.
Despite the grievous hurt and indiscriminate massacre of her children, Pakistan army rose to the occasion, and mounted a ferocious attack into the dens of those manic killers and flushed them out of their burrows. Those who could ran to their collaborators and mentors across the border and are living in criminal safety in Afghanistan. All the calls and masterminds of the APS Peshawar massacre, Badh Ber Airbase, and Bacha Khan University attack have been traced physically and electronically to Afghanistan. The ghastly carnage at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park Lahore, where 73 including children were killed, and 300 injured, would also invariably lead to killing hatcheries in that tormented country, but ironically, their state response remains as stony as their blood-soaked barren lands.
Brazen denials followed by very offensive disdain will neither help Afghanistan nor will these ever endear them to Pakistanis. Many Afghans seems to lament about Pakistan doing this and that to their country. They conveniently forget how much we have suffered hosting them in the last 30 years. They seem to persistently wish away the brewing ISIS-TTP double-storm, which can do a great deal of damage.
For our innate regard for international norms, Pakistan could long have taken out Mullah Fazlullah, and his band of thugs from their hideouts across the border. Afghanistan is not doing anyone a favour sheltering TTP fugitive terrorists despite Pakistan’s repeated urging.
FATA is the region where the British fought for 100 years (1849-1947), and yet did not fully succeed. The Operation Zarb-e-Azb has ripped right through Mohmand, Orakzai, South Waziristan, Khyber,Tirah, Shawal like a sharp saber. Superb determination and grit of our men and officers is praiseworthy. In the heart of Shawal valley after a particularly bloody battle where they routed the well-entrenched terrorists completely, a soldier said, “Today we have avenged the massacre of our children in Peshawar.”
A force like this is unstoppable. It has destroyed the made-up myth of terrorists’ invincibility for all times to come, leaving them with ungallant options like a hit here and an IED blast there. For sure, Pakistan army will keep the areas they have fought hard to win and these pestilential men will have to remain beholden to this valiant force in future. Pakistan army will be thanked for a long time for ridding the region of these bloodthirsty megalomaniacs. Out of the ashes of these horrible carnages rises the phoenix of our nation’s resilience and character, which can make our tomorrow worth living for, only if we knew.
As a token of gratitude and remembrance 107 schools have been named after those who were killed at the APS. Admire the determination of young boys and girls who survived the tragedy to go to the same school and the same university and not submit to terror, intimidation and murder. Rise in respect and reverence for the extraordinary grit and bravery of late Tahira Qazi, the principal whose sterling sense of duty led her to face the ruthless assassins, barehanded, in order to save her wards. Appreciate the tremendous valour of the Bacha Khan University chemistry professor who fought back to save his students and was killed where he stood. Reflect over the great bravery of the teacher who stood up to the Taliban fearlessly, faced them to save her students, and was burnt alive by as a consequence.
There were teenaged students and children who showed the most unusual courage, presence of mind and invaluable comradeship to save their class fellows and others from being killed. That requires a heart made of pure gold and a self that is carved out of granite. These are the ashes and embers that can turn into blaze and propel our nation towards self-actualisation and worthiness. We must regain our lost space and centuries old socio-religious balance destroyed by these medieval marauders. Let us rise and pay respect to these heroes and heroines who lit our way to honour with their blood. Let us stand up and hold each other’s hands in firm determination not to bow out in defeat and despair before these assassins. Never.
The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army and can be reached at [email protected]