Peshawar terror attack | India Writes

Can Pakistan take on the Taliban?

December 24, 2014December 24, 2014 - by India Writes Network

The December 16 killings of over 130 school children in Peshawar by terrorists was generally described as the 9/11 moment of Pakistan, a moment in which the Nation is shaken to its core and resolves to strike at the enemy with all its might. Even by the annals of terrorist killings in Pakistan, this was by far the most gruesome and barbaric incident. And it called for the most resolute response.

What then was the response of the Pakistan government? The Prime Minister of Pakistan called for an all-party meeting. The Army Chief flew to Kabul, seeking a meeting with the President of Afghanistan, apparently to seek extradition of Mullah Fazlullah, the head of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that claimed responsibility for the massacre of the children. How would Gen. Raheel Sheriff respond if President Ashraf Ghani demanded the reciprocal handing over of Mullah Omar or Haqqani from the sanctuaries of North Waziristan?

Peshawar killings: Modi says India shares pain, calls for jointly crushing terror

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014 - by India Writes Network

Terror blurs boundaries, and widens the arc of sympathy. In the wake of the barbaric terror attack on an army school in Peshawar which killed 132 students, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi promptly picked up the phone and rang up his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and shared India’s “heard-rending sorrow and pain” at this horrific assault and stressed the need for joining hands to defeat the scourge of terror.
Mr Modi called Mr Sharif on December 16 evening, soon after the latter returned from Peshawar to Islamabad. In his telephonic conversation, Mr Modi “condemned in the strongest terms the brutal terrorist attack” and underlined that “this savage killing of innocent children, who are the epitome of the finest human values, in a temple of learning was not only an attack against Pakistan, but an assault against the entire humanity.”
In a compelling message, Mr Modi conveyed to Mr Sharif that “this moment of shared pain and mourning is also a call for our two countries and all those who believe in humanity to join hands to decisively and comprehensively defeat terrorism, so that the children in Pakistan, India and elsewhere do not have to face a future darkened by the lengthening shadow of terrorism.”