Another
heart wrenching event marked on the same treacherous date “16 December”.
Peshawar, an
ancient city of more than 3 million people tucked right up against the Khyber
Pass, has often found itself in the center of it all.
Militants repeatedly
targeted the city in response to Pakistani military offensives, like a 2009
truck bombing of a popular marketplace frequented by women and children that
killed more than 100 people.
And the
Taliban hasn't hesitated to go after school children.An attack on a school in
Peshawar, Pakistan, early Tuesday morning left more than 120 people dead, most
of them children.
The attack, which the Taliban claimed responsibility for, saw
a number of militants wearing military uniforms open fire and detonate
explosives at the Army Public School.
The BBC
reported early on Tuesday that the school was attacked because it is an
army-run institution, which has been confirmed by the Pakistani arm of the
Taliban.
As the rescue operation had been underway, many parents frantically
searched for their children outside the school, which was sealed off with an
unknown number of hostages still inside.
The nearby
hospitals, which had received a number of the victims, had reportedly begun
posting lists of the deceased.
One doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital in
Peshawar told that some of the wounded and deceased who were brought in had
been shot in the head and chest, while others were killed in a suicide bomb
attack on the school playground.
Parents dementedly searched for their wards
while others queued outside hospitals to give blood.
After all
this, at the scene there was a very eerie atmosphere. A place like this, which
should have been very happy and lively, was now just a desolate barren piece of
land.
Mohammad Hilal, a student in the 10th grade, was shot three times in his
arm and legs when the gunmen stormed the school auditorium. “I think I passed
out for a while. I thought I was dreaming.
I wanted to move but felt paralyzed.
Then I came to and realized that actually two other boys had fallen on me. Both
of them were dead," he told the media.
In line with
the national mourning, Pakistani embassies worldwide will have their flags
lowered to half-mast and books of condolences will be opened. No religion ever
sanctions the killing of children.
Going to school, market, and other public
places are some of the mundane things, but now parents and families in Pakistan
will be terrified off their wits to send their children to these places to be a
part of these simple everyday activities.
Despite of all this, we still have
hopes because we know; “When a good thing goes bad it's not the end of the
world”.
