The sun is setting on Pakistan’s darkest day yet and I am writing this. I can’t stop hugging my baby brother today. He is so fine and child-like. He makes a fuss almost every day about going to school, waking up early, the boring uniform. It never crosses our minds that school might be a dangerous place for him. No matter how much he claims it’s ruining his life.
Little babies, children, kids, little ones, the innocent, most vulnerable faction of society were made to go through and killed in such a horrid and cowardly act of terrorism today. Their parents might have been angry with them in the morning, for not getting ready quick enough, for remembering homework last minute, for refusing breakfast. Oh how normal life must have been then!
Nothing could have prepared anyone for the terror. I cannot begin to imagine the pain and horror engulfing the affected, when those millions of miles away are having trouble with balancing normal routine and the terrifying updates.
135 confirmed dead by KP Health Minister. With 114 injured. Most of whom were school children.
UPDATE : 132 children and 9 staff : Pakistan Army.
How does one cope with this? “How does the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened?”
There are those in Pakistan that would like label these murderous monster our “misunderstood brothers”, apologise for them every step of the way, never call them out by name, march all the way to their houses to keep drones from annihilating them, and push on and on for dialogue with them.
Please do tell me how you hold talks with these barbarians? How do you sit down in the same room as this scum and proceed to talk, in a civilised manner?
When they look for children to kill one by one and pump bullets into their bodies.
Please tell me how you support this or any “leader” who would be a proponent of this?
Take your humanistic bulls**t someplace else. Our plight is not against fellow humans.
Then there are those that would indulge in container entertainment and follow those who throw tantrums all over the country; covering safely in rich houses and air-conditioned rooms and send poor peasants out to fight, cause violence, disruption and chaos. Then claim to “lead” a “revolution” while criticising the government they claim is illegitimate for not providing security.
Throw in a few fake pictures of state brutality because you are so helpless.
For heaven’s sake, get out of your selfish bubble. Stop this madness!
And for the sheeple that follow; We are at war! We are at war! They are killing us! We are at war!
Are those lines not simple enough?
Can you please stop being an audience to these pretenders? Can you please stop feeding their insatiable egos? Will you please recognise that final power rests with you? Will you please stop worshipping every man that comes along singing the tune you like?
We are at war with a monster we have brewed ourselves. It is a highly complex war. It is one that has helped feed many a million-dollar ambitions. A war that has divided us as a nation too. Will you please stop lying to yourself?
Tell me those children that died today cared about the seats Imran Khan has been making you cry over. Tell me their parents care about Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman. Tell me that the school teacher who tried protecting her students thought Malala was a scam.
And as for “who was behind this?” It was us. Not me, not you, but we, as a collective nation. We were too busy bickering over who’s leader and who’s political party was better. Too busy defending men who have failed to deliver, have failed to unite, have failed to even call out terrorists that plague the nation they claim to serve. They have kept us busy with their interests while ours are put on the back-burner. Children have become collateral damage while adults pawns.
We are at war and we need not be scattered and ultimately leaderless as a nation. We need to have our priorities sorted and not wait for something even more extreme to happen to help us all realise.
Unite and fight; the enemy has been kind enough to be painfully obvious. We need to reciprocate.
We can never bring our children back; but we can unite for the ones that need us.
Zaitoon Malik is a student, who's a feminist observing and providing critique on culture and politics. She has a keen interest in history