USA Dot Com is a blog covering politics and government from a conservative Christian perspective. Verne Strickland is a 50-year veteran of investigative journalism. This blog offers a take-no-prisoners style with a modicum of biting satire. Verne and his wife of 55 years, Durrene, live in Wilmington, NC.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Pakistan responds to Peshawar school massacre with strikes on Taliban
The Pakistan
military has taken punitive action against Taliban militants by
launching massive air strikes against its border region strongholds in
retaliation for the Peshawar school massacre that left 132 children and
nine staff dead in one of the worst terrorist incidents in the country’s
history.
In an attack that provoked horror and fierce international condemnation, seven members of Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistan Taliban,
dressed in army uniform and wearing suicide vests, stormed the Army
Public School mid-morning on Tuesday and began their shooting spree.
Firefights with Pakistan commandos continued for about eight hours
before the school was cleared. Pakistani security forces said some of
the attackers had been killed by commandos and others had blown
themselves up.
Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for a ferocious army offensive – named Zarb-e-Azb
– that has been underway in tribal areas since the summer and has left
an estimated 1,000 militants dead and tens of thousands of people
displaced. An eyewitness from the school, a lab technician, says he saw six or
seven men entering classrooms and beating children. Source: Reuters
“We selected the army’s school for the attack because the government
is targeting our families and females,” said Taliban spokesman Mohammed
Umar Khurasani. “We want them to feel the pain.”
The Taliban claimed it had spared the youngest pupils but survivors said the shooting had been indiscriminate.
The danger over the coming weeks and months is of spiralling violence
in an already volatile region as the Pakistan military, which has a
well-founded reputation for ruthlessness, seeks revenge for the dead
children of military personnel.
The first indication that the response will be harsh came when
Pakistan’s chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif, in a tweet, said
“massive air strikes” had been carried out against targets in the Khyber
region, a tribal agency adjacent to Peshawar.
The army chief’s first public remarks after the attack reflected
rising anger. “These terrorists have struck the heart of the nation,” he
said. “But our resolve to tackle this menace has gotten a new lease of
life. We will pursue these monsters and their facilitators until they
are eliminated for good.” Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai condemned the ‘atrocious and cowardly’ attack. Photograph: Oli Scarff/PA
Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, vowed a military offensive
that began in the summer to eradicate Taliban havens in North
Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, would continue “until terrorism is rooted from our land”.
The government declared three days of national mourning. Around the
country musicians cancelled concerts, cinemas dropped films and business
owners said shops would remain closed.
Throughout the day agonising details of the attack emerged from
Peshawar’s usually unremarkable military Cantonment area. The seven
attackers gained entrance to the school over a wall shared with a
graveyard and then began shooting at random, searching out children
hiding beneath desks and benches. The school roll was over 1,000; its
pupils aged between five and 18. The army said 960 students and staff
survived.
Pakistan has witnessed many terrorist incidents over the last decade
but the deaths of so many children produced an outcry both at home and
internationally.
Barack Obama described the attack as heinous, while his secretary of
state John Kerry described it as “gut-wrenching” and “an unspeakable
horror”. Echoing the Pakistan government and military, Kerry said: “The
perpetrators must be brought to justice.”
David Cameron described it as a dark day for humanity. “There is not a
belief system in the world that can justify this appalling act,” the
prime minister said.
The massacre saw regional rivals join to express sympathy and support
for the victims. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, described
the attack as cowardly, adding: “It is a senseless act of unspeakable
brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings –
young children in their school.”
Pakistani soldiers move bodies of victims killed when Taliban gunmen attacked an army-run school.Photograph: Arshad Arbab/EPA
The president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, who is engaged in a
struggle of his own with the Afghan Taliban, also condemned the
massacre, saying “the killing of innocent children is contrary to
Islam”.
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The
Nobel peace prize winner, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by
the Pakistan Taliban two years ago for speaking out in favour of
education for girls, said: “I am heartbroken by this senseless and
cold-blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us.
Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this.”
The united front in the region is unlikely to last long before there
is a return to mutual suspicion between the Pakistan, Afghanistan and
Indian governments. Pakistan’s intelligence agency has long played a
double-game, with elements at times supporting the Afghanistan Taliban.
Adding to the dangerous mix are US drone strikes in Fata, the
semi-autonomous region of north-western Pakistan.
The stepping-up of military operations in the Pakistan tribal areas
looks as if it will coincide with the Afghanistan government confronting
the challenge of the Afghanistan Taliban following the full withdrawal
of all US and allied combat troops at the end of the month.
Police stand beside empty coffins at a hospital dealing with those attacked by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar, 16 December 2014.Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
Tehrik-e-Taliban is allied to the Afghanistan Taliban, sharing
similar aims regarding the establishment of sharia law and opposition to
the US but, unlike the Afghanistan Taliban, regards the Pakistan
government as a target.
The main Pakistan opposition leader, Imran Khan, announced he was
cancelling national protests planned for Thursday. Khan is a leading
critic of army behaviour in the tribal areas and has called in the past
for negotiations rather than fighting.
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