Tanzia Islam for BeyondHeadlines
Children belong to one of the most affectedgroup or victim of any war and armed conflicts. The impact of these violent conflicts on children reflects in various forms. These can be direct in the form of death or physical damage or indirect such as mental and psychological trauma. Currently children have also become an easy target of terrorist attacks. The stories are consisting of never ending list of brutal acts of kidnapping children from school in Nigeria, death of children in Israel-Palestine conflicts in Gaza or the most recent unfortunate shooting in Peshawar, Pakistan. The attack by Taliban on 16 December 2014 indicates the horrifying effects on children in Peshawar. The violent act of these terrorist attacks clearly show that no life will be spared. The desperate attack by the Taliban on Army Public School left 148 dead, 132 on them were children. The school children of one to tenth grade were the victims of this attack. Over 100 children are fighting in the hospital for their lives. Now the question is whether these children would grow up normally? Will they be ever comfortable to go to any school for learning? How safe the parents will feel to send their children to schools in Pakistan?It’s true that life moves on. However, in this very case, it would be really difficult for them, who escaped unhurt or with major minor injuries, to forget the incident and move ahead.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the assault, calling it revenge for a major military offensive “Zarb-e-Azb” in the North Waziristan region. Currently Pakistan is in the shadows and regular news are missing in the international media. Many journalists claim that the Taliban left Afghanistan and now operating from Pakistan. Taliban supporters are believed to be conservative Muslim believers who manipulate the religion for their own purpose. However, killing children as tool for ‘revenge’ is apparently missing in the religious teachings of Islam. This ‘neo-Muslim’ concept is a combined idea of terrorism along with the excuse of religion. Surely Taliban did recover the attention of the international media through this brutal act of genocide. During the Second World War around 1.5 million children were killed in the Nazi concentration camps. The Beslan school crisis ten year ago (2004) left 185 children dead.Most recent Taliban attack in Peshawar left at least 132 children dead. The slaughter of children in Peshawar is possibly the third largest in the history of mankind. Killing children intentionally shooting on their head is one of the clear statement of the intention which has been observed by the Taliban.
Every war victimizes the marginalized and the soft targets easily and this leaves a long lasting after effects on the entire community. Pakistan is at similar target point by the Taliban today. “Children are innocent and especially vulnerable. Children are less equipped to adapt or respond to conflict. They are the least responsible for conflict, yet suffer disproportionately from its excesses. Children represent the hopes and future of every society; destroy them and you have destroyed a society”(Gist,2009).No matter which country or which government, children must not pay for the policy mistakes. Children are neither government nor terrorists.
(Author is Doctoral researcher at Technical University of Berlin, Germany.)
