Public Comment

The same day Taliban gunmen attacked students in Peshawar my youngest sister received an honor roll award. I was wondering if this brutal incident happened to my sister, my heart would have been torn and she would not be standing at the podium cheerfully while holding the certificate. Instead, she would be lying on the ground in a pool of blood. 

As an older sister, I saw the students in the Peshawar school as my younger siblings too. An older sibling would have felt a pang in her heart when she found out her younger siblings died while striving for knowledge in order to pursue their dreams. I am angry and ashamed of these animals that were nothing but cold-blooded murderers. But it would be incorrect to even call them animals. I would not even call them animals because animals only function on their instincts and they do not have free will as humans do. I refuse to call these barbarians humans because they have neither logical sense nor compassion. Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani claimed the attack was justified because “the government is targeting [their] families and females [and] we want them to feel the pain.” If that was the motive, then he should have instructed his gunmen to attack the government official who attacked families and females of the Taliban members. 

If those extremists associate their ideology with Islam, as a Muslim let me scream loudly that Islam emphasizes education for both men and women and condemns creating disorder or even taking one’s life. The mastermind of Taliban clearly did not understand a simple metaphor of how a fire cannot be put out by fire. The Pakistani Taliban is simply degrading their human sense with a non-sense ideology. 

I wonder if Pakistani officials will bring justice to this unspeakable crime and put the Taliban leader and those responsible for this attack in lifetime imprisonment or given the death penalty. I beseech the Pakistani j government and its judicial system to punish the perpetrators in the strongest manner possible. The least I can do is pray for the victims--my fellow human beings and fellow knowledge seekers.