December 17, 2014
By Saeed Qureshi
On December 16, a group of seven insane human
beasts stormed the Army Public School
in the Peshawar city of Pakistan and murdered 141 students and
instructors. It is so ghastly and colossal a tragedy that defies description in
words. The students sitting in class rooms were easy prey for these terrorists.
These monsters are patently defiling the name of Islam that they want to impose
by force and don’t even shirk from spilling blood of the people.
The families of the innocent victims, the whole
nation and even the world at large are in a state of indescribable agony, anguish
and mourning. The torrents of tears
would continue flowing down the eyes of the parents no one know how long.
Hundreds of families have been devastated and there is no way that their pain
can be subsided. This appalling massacre of flowers of nation in such large
number is perhaps the first of its kind in the recent history.
While the nations and the world mourns this gruesome
carnage, the paramount question begs the answer: how to definitively and
conclusively forestall and prevent such terrorism and nab and exterminate the
heartless predators. If such mayhems continue to happen and give rude shocks to
this nation then mark my words we neither have an ensured future nor an
honorable and peaceful existence.
Have we not to cleanse the territory of Pakistan
from the murderers and assassins killing the people at will and making the
society hostage to their convoluted and weird interpretation of religion? Have
we not to expunge the cancer of mushrooming violence and terrorism spawned by
these blood hounds in the name of making Pakistan an Islamic state? These mindless
and misguided jihadists are waging a religious crusade against their own people.
The gun-toting Taliban and their merciless cohorts
shedding human blood for nasty designs and bleak objectives, have to be
physically eliminated once and for all. Their supporters and henchmen in
Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan too have to be wiped off for the
sake of peace that has remained elusive for several decades.
The state of Pakistan appeared on the map of
the world in 1947 and ever since has been under siege of the relentless sway of
the religious extremists who want to convert it into an orthodox country of
distant past/. How long we shall we witness these horrific mayhems
and our people being ambushed and rampaged by these callous thugs and spiteful gangsters?
Let us resolve and resolve resolutely that
from onwards the land of Pakistan would be made immune from the Frankenstein of fanaticism. Let us resolve to hunt
them down and finish them wherever they might be: hidden in mosques, religious
seminaries, in houses, in caves or under the protection of the mightiest.
The National Plan of Action announced by Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif in the all parties’ conference is the first major step
toward a long drawn comprehensive blitz against the terrorists, enemies of
public peace and the religious fascists.
But more needs to be done. The religious seminaries
are the breeding centers for producing indoctrinated suicide bombers and
Taliban fighters who bob and kill in order to be the dwellers of the paradise. All
religious schools and institutions should be either closed or taken over by the
government. These institutions should be integrated with the national education
system with strict watch on their activities and system of teaching. The
religious education can be made part of the prevalent education system and individuals
or a group of bearded zealots should not be allowed to run those institutions.
The Imams of the major mosques in Pakistan
should be appointed by the government like other cadres and paid like
government employees. Even if this is not possible then a strict accountability
and monitoring of their daily activities and education and the syllabi should
be enforced. The mosques should be opened during the prayer timings and closed
for the rest of the day.
The religious militant organizations spreading
sectarian hatred and resorting to the target killings should be banned and
their top notch leaders arrested and sentenced if they don’t desist from their
ruinous pursuits. Any agitation or revolt or civil disobedience, or underground
subversive activities, in the name of enforcing their respective myopic and
narrow agendas, should be forcibly suppressed. Let religious freedom be ensured
to the people across the board.
These recommendations are aimed at liberating
the state and the society from fanatic religious marauders that have hijacked
the society through fear, intimidation and heinous crimes such as bank robberies, extortion of money, forceful recruitment of
youth for suicide bombings and sectarian vendettas and blowing up girls’ schools.
The mission like cleansing of Swat Valley by the army in 2007-2009 can be
reenacted in the entire country.
The Taliban and their ferocious
ilk pose constant danger to the very state of Pakistan. Any attempts to change
their inflexible attitude and diabolic activities are not going to fructify.
Let the State deal with them with full might and sniff them out of the society.
That is the only course to restore peace, establish the writ of law in Pakistan
and to ensure a tolerant, egalitarian and stable society.
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