The terror incidents, especially bombings, are fast becoming a routine and causing many children to believe that they are fated to it.
A powerful suicide car bombing at the Criminal Investigation Department police station on the Jamrud Road rocked the provincial capital at almost 4:40 a.m. on Wednesday last when most of the population was asleep. Seven police commandoes and a Pakistan Army soldier were killed and 46 others injured in the terror act. This was not the first time when the people of this terror-stricken city were awakened by the thunder; they have become used to such practices.
Most of the parents told The News that while they remained worried about the state of affairs prevailing in the provincial metropolis due to rising incidence of terror, it was strange and matter of concern for them that their children had started taking such terrorist activities as a routine.
“It seems my children have taking these bombings and blasts as their fate,” said Ali Nasir, a banker who lived in Gulberg area of the Peshawar Cantt where the sound of the devastating car bombing at the CID Police Station was heard far and wide.
Four to five-year-old children got up with the wake up bell, said a mother while referring to the sound of the blast. “Unlike in the past, this time I was astonished to see the reaction of my children as most of them did not show any fearful expression,” said Mrs Samina Ali, while narrating that despite being asleep the children behaved fairly normal and their inert behaviour makes me worried.
Paghunda Khan, 13, a student of grade 8, told The News: “It has now become a routine for us. We go to bed hearing about bombings and wake up with the same news. We have got used to with it but the only factor that upsets me is missing my classes, as it becomes a load for the next day. I asked my daughter not to go to school and she started crying.”
She added that she was to make a presentation which she missed. Mother of Behram Khan, 10, a grade 3 student, said: “My son is very much attached with me and he didn’t even go to sleep until I tender him but this morning his strange behaviour and words surprised me as I turned on the television he insisted to switch it off.”
Behram in a lisping tone said, “Mama, you already know what the news would say now, so and so dead, that many injured and then condemnation from some minister,” his mother said. And what was most surprising to the mother when he did not even insist to have leave from school today.
The concerned parent said the frequent terrorist activities taking place throughout the country had not only made us restless but also alarmed us about the behaviour of our children. Mudassar Ali, an employee of a non-governmental organisation, said: “We grew up seeing Kashmiri people embracing martyrdom, blood shed in Palestine by Israeli troops and Iraq-Kuwait conflict, but all the conflicts and violence had a solid background. But how will we justify this ongoing state of conflict in the name of ‘war against terror’ to our coming generation?”
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