PAKISTAN: A SCHOOL BECOMES A KILLING FIELD – OPED

By Sameer Patil

The massacre of 134 children in the early morning attack in Peshawar should prompt Pakistan’s military and political leaders to reconsider their conflicted approach to the insurgency that is threatening the entire region.

Unlike the attack on the Lindt Chocolate Café in Sydney, Australia on 15 December 2014, the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan on 16 December 2014 was an organised attempt by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to hit out at the Pakistan Army’s interests.

This attack by Mullah Fazlullah’s TTP is a response to the Pakistan Army’s military operation in North Waziristan launched in June 2014. Although the Pakistan military had claimed success in operation Zarb-e-Azb, the attack on the Army Public School clearly shows that the TTP has been able to maintain its operational network, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region which has emerged as a hub of militant activity.

The TTP split into various factions in May 2014 and these divided factions are battling for supremacy and publicity by engaging in terror attacks. The retributive suicide attack on the Pakistani side of the Wagah border in November 2014 which had claimed over 50 lives, is also an example of this strategy.

The killing of school children and teachers in the Peshawar school further substantiates the need for Pakistan to demonstrate resolve in combating all terror-related violence, and not distinguish between the terror groups attacking Pakistan’s interests versus anti-India terrorist outfits.