Peshawar Church Blast: A National Tragedy

It is a shameful occurrence and nothing else can be said about it. At least 75 people have been killed and over 100 have been injured. What was their fault? Why were they targeted? Their only crime was that they were Christians, in a country called Pakistan. Whenever something like this happens, I feel slightly ashamed at calling myself a Pakistani. 

Be it the massacre of Ahmadis, Shia genocide or in general terrorist activity in the country, it all is a reason to be shameful. Pakistan is a great country, but we have to get rid of the menace that is ripping our society and country apart. How much more blood is going to be spilled before the government realizes this? 

 

TTP are barbarians who don’t want peace. They have proved that by showing disinterest in the proposed peace talks by the government – backed by parties such as PTI. First they killed mercilessly, Army personnel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and now attacked a church in Peshawar. Their justification for this attack is that those people are non-Muslims and they don’t have a right to live. 

Who gave them authority to decide whether someone has a right to live or not? Aren’t Christians human beings too and Pakistanis? As Pakistanis and as citizens of this country, they have full right to live fear free in Pakistan. Unfortunately, over the past few years, we have seen this is increasingly difficult to do so; first the attack on Christians in Lahore last year and now this. 

What TTP is doing is destruction of humanity, by using wrongful interpretation of Islam. They use Islam for their own means, misinterpret the religions scriptures and only follow what suits their bidding, while ignoring the rest. It is a harshly unfair portrayal of Islam. 

How long will we allow TTP militants to keep taking innocent lives in Pakistan, whether they are Muslim or minority? Unfortunately, the 90% green part of the Pakistan flag couldn’t protect the 10% white part. 

TTP the so called warriors of Islam and propagators, don’t realize that even suicide is forbidden in Islam. Then how can they wage holy war against the Christians in Pakistan, by the use of suicide bombers. Isn’t that forbidden in Islam as well? 

TTP apologists and those that keep defending this incident by saying it transpired due to delay in peace talks need to comprehend that, we didn’t lose lives of Christians in Pakistan. We lost lives of Pakistanis. They have full right to live and the state has an obligation to provide them security. You can’t hide behind the excuse of delay in peace talks and keep letting incidents like this happen.

Whenever something happens in Pakistan, all the big leaders condemn the incident. Statements are released to the media, which convey a tragic message of condemnation. Well, it is time to stop playing the sympathy card, stop with the political scoring and actually doing something. Action is required more than condemnation now. The nation is sick of it. Leaders are sitting at top positions and all they do is condemn and make speeches. 

Those who encourage violence or teach killing innocent people are against the teachings of Islam and TTP are clearly against it. TTP are also clearly against the interest of Pakistan and want to create rifts between the different people that live in the country, for their welfare. Anything that disrupts peace and harmony in Pakistan is welcomed by this militant group.

What happened in Peshawar is a national tragedy! Instead of blaming it on different political parties, the government or external forces, everyone should come together and collectively think of a solution, because peace talks is definitely not working. Stop with the blame game already, people are losing lives. Also whenever something like this happens in Pakistan, instead of condemning the attacks, thinking of it as a sad tragedy, people end up defending their political parties, start badmouthing and political scoring. 

It is time for all of that to stop and for the nation to unite against these animals, because that is what they are. They kill without remorse and they fully intend to keep doing that, unless something is done.