FOR some mysterious reasons, PTV seems to have a soft corner for terrorists and murderers like the Taliban. The Taliban’s deeds need no recounting. They blow up mosques during Taraveeh and Friday prayers, bomb Eid congregations (because they wanted to murder Aftab Sherpao), and they attack religious processions, hospitals, funerals and peace jirgas.

They obediently follow Ayman al Zawahiri, the Al Qaeda leader, who has declared war on Pakistan and has vowed to destroy America, Israel and Pakistan. The Taliban obediently follow him. They have attacked GHQ, raided PNS Mehran, and murdered about 3,000 Pakistani soldiers.

They have bombed police academies and attacked the girls’ section of the International Islamic University at Islamabad, and their followers regularly blow up schools. Last year, they fired rockets at a school van, carrying children, because they said they wanted to warn parents. What an ‘Islamic’ way of warning parents! They bombed Marriott at Iftar time, and also blew up Data Darbar at Iftar time, killing innocent men, women and children. This is their concept of ‘amr bil maaroof’ and ‘nihi anil munkir’ (spread good and suppress evil).

Among the tragedies and holocausts which the Pakistani nation will not forget was the bombing of a bazaar in Peshawar. Of the nearly100 killed, most were women shoppers. They carried out a similar massacre in Lahore’s Liberty Market. When they bombed a CID building in Lahore, children who were waiting for their parents to turn up started shrieking and crying. The picture of those crying children would move any heart, but not these murderers.

Their aim is to destroy the state of Pakistan, and they make no secret of it. The other day, these cold-blooded murderers showed a video, where Taliban killers shot 15 Frontier Constabulary men one by one. Each time a Pakistani soldier — may God bless him — was killed, they raised the slogan of “God is Great”! The Taliban killers do not know that even Israelis give prisoner-of-war status to detained Palestinians. But these ‘holy’ warriors wouldn’t accord this status to fellow Muslims and Pakistanis.

These hounds are referred to by PTV in its news bulletins as ‘askaryet passand’.

Even a college professor can be an ‘askaryet pasand’ (believing in militancy). The Taliban are rebels and must be referred to as ‘baaghi’ because they are waging a war on the state of Pakistan. The least PTV can do is to call them ‘dahshat gard’ (terrorists).

Will Information Minister Ashiq Firdaus Awan put her foot down and call a spade a spade? There is no other word for the Taliban except ‘baaghi’ (rebels). The nation must unite against them and destroy them.

RIZWAN YASSIN Karachi