A Very Merry Christmas!

“There was chaos in the corridors. Our teacher locked the door and screamed at us to duck on the floor. But the long-bearded fiends, clad in baggy clothes, broke down the door and began spraying bullets. After a flash of moments, I felt searing pain as I was shot in both legs.” A teenage survivor of the Peshawar massacre shared the ‘classroom terror.’

The brutality on December 16 speaks volumes about the growing scourge of extremism in Pakistan. Killing innocent children is a crime so heinous that there is no word in the human dictionary to describe its barbarity. This dastardly attack on school children also highlights the threat that children face in that “morale tattered” country, Pakistan. Bullet was pumped into Malala Yousafzai in 2012 as she was fighting for the girls’ education there and now the same terrorist group made children the soft target. Ironical! Isn’t it? Just a few days ago, Malala was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize which was followed by the Peshawar ‘innocence killing.’ Pakistan has suffered any number of terror attacks in the past but none as gruesome and compelling in its brutality as this one. On this Malala says, “I was heartbroken by this senseless and cold- blooded act of terror… I along with millions of others around the world mourn these children… but we will never be defeated.”

The bare-faced slayers said, “ We want Pakistan to feel pain.” Remorse is at bay , but unadulterated sadism has taken the front seat.

The unimaginable carnage in the Army Public School has left everyone in an eerie numbness. Just imagine the plight of the distraught parents who lost their kids. Groaning and lamenting has overpowered them. Father of late 14-year-old Abdullah says, “My son was my dream. My dream has been killed.” No doubt, there can be no bigger tragedy on earth for parents than to carry the corpse of a child!

In Peshawar, condolences have been pouring in from different countries of the world as the tragedy has struck the human chord across various geographical boundaries. Suffering of innocent children and parents is a universal pain which has united the global citizens through the bonds of ‘insaniyat.’ To pay homage to the innocent souls, various institutions around the globe observed two minutes silence and mourned the deaths.

“What you sow, so shall you reap.” Pakistan gave shelter to the cannibals of humanity; nurtured and pampered them. But the consequences juxtaposed; Pakistan itself was bitten by them!

Wake up Pakistan! Wake up from your comatose. I said “wake up”, but I doubt because it is already too late. So many children have martyred but Pakistan is still blind to it.

December 16 has become infamous on the pages of history. The ominous day refreshes the painful memories of “Nirbhaya Case” as well. The extreme‘st’ height of blatancy and monstrosity could be seen in this case. This incident in 2012 had left every single citizen stunned and agaped. The whole nation had drowned in the sea of grief and anxiety at the sheer fiendishness of the crime.

We all know that December is the month of Christmas. Christmas is the hodgepodge of celebrations and is the hallmark of the beginning of new creation. The son of God was born on December 25, Jesus Christ, which was deemed to be a possible renaissance of humanity. “He” was born at the time when crime, greed, hatred, ignorance….i.e. all sort of negativities had shadowed the humanity. “He” took ‘rebirth’ as purity was forgotten and morality was neglected, in fact crippled.

 But as far as the present scenario is concerned, all these things sound baseless as hate, rage, anger, hypocrisy, greed, ignorance, envy, etc have become the order of the day.

On Christmas, we exchange gifts; celebrate the birth of Christ… but what the terrorists have given the world in the last few days, will keep on haunting us throughout!!