AFTER the attack on 14-year-old daring, moderate, and articulate anti-Taliban activist Malala Yousufzai, right-wing religio-political parties should refrain from having a soft corner and sympathy for the Taliban.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan always criticises attacks on the Taliban either through military operation or drone attacks but remains tight-lipped when the Taliban attack our police, army or other law-enforcement agencies, religious processions, shrines, and people of other sects.

Likewise, the leaders of Difa-i-Pakistan Council, including JUI (F), deliver fiery speeches, arrange mass rallies and protest at every level to condemn the military action and drone attacks, but they too remained silent over the atrocities by the Taliban.

It is a fact that each and every corner of the country is bleeding due to the ferocious attacks by the Taliban and other such extremist groups.

Recently, Imran Khan arranged a peace march, which was not allowed to enter South Waziristan.

However, the question is : how many times has Imran Khan arranged such peace marches against the Taliban whose heinous acts are engulfing the country?

From Quetta to Gilgit Baltistan, people are being slaughtered on a sectarian basis, while shrines of Data Gunj Bakhsh (Lahore), Barri Imam (Islamabad), Abdullah Shah Ghaz (Karachi), Sakhi Sarwar (D.G. Khan), Rahman Baba (Peshawar), educational institutes, religious processions, etc., have been attacked terming them the centres of heresy and heathenry.

After the trail of wicked activities of the Taliban and their supporters, hasn’t the time come for the political parties, military, law-enforcement agencies, civil society, students and all other stakeholders of the country to unite and launch a decisive action against the biggest enemy of Pakistan and Islam?

M. HASSAN WAZIRI          Islamabad

Foreign tribute

Malala, a tiny schoolgirl, has taught the Pakistanis what courage really is.

Her refusal to accept the dictates of the Taliban despite their repeated threats is an example to all of us whether resident in Pakistan or in any part of the world that putting our lives ahead of our moral principles is what all terrorists bank on in their relentless pursuit of power.

If a Nobel prize for courage is ever established, I recommend that Malala Yousufzai be the first recipient.

J.E.SEQUEIRA                Oakville, Canada

Taliban’s nemesis

I BELIEVE that the Pakistani Taliban have met their nemesis, the one that does not operate from the Oval office or the general headquarters; one that does not have marines, drones or stealth helicopters at its disposal; one that does not have satellites watching the Taliban’s every move before its mighty army strikes them.

Instead, this nemesis uses the power of words, the ones that represent feelings of every peaceful Pakistani. The powers of her words have been acknowledged by every peace stakeholder whether sitting in Islamabad or Washington. Her recent sacrifice has made many to come forward and accept that ‘she is the one’ whose words can clearly make a distinction between the good and the evil.

Since 2004-05, I always fantasised that a former Pakistani commando will turn against the Taliban one day because they had attacked his family, and one day my ‘Rambo’ will go in the troubled areas with his gunship helicopter to destroy all the Taliban leadership.

Malala has proved that we do not need weapons to destroy ideologies. Instead, we need to talk between ourselves to make everybody understand that the right to live in peace is every one’s. Her bravery to accept the challenge to do this job that most of us never had the slightest courage makes her contender for receiving achievement awards, the biggest one is being acclaimed as the voice of peaceful Pakistanis.

Irrespective of her outcome in the recent event, I believe that she is the nemesis that will put the Taliban in the depths of the Indian Ocean, and all this without the slightest use of the central command carriers.

JUNAID AHMAD               Islamabad

LEAs’ weakness

THE attack on Malala Yousufzai, who promoted education in her region, is an act hard to imagine even for a savage.

The pseudo-reformers of society are challenging the writ of the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without any fear of being caught.

The shameful attack on the life of an innocent child proves how brutal our society has gone. Similarly, it has exposed the weaknesses of law-enforcement agencies as evil forces are targeting the public at their will. This tendency is quite harmful as nobody is safe in this country.

I have one question for the perpetrators of violence and death. Don’t they have any young sister or daughter? Had they any, they would never have thought of treading this path of barbarity.

Sanity demands that people should be left free to live their lives at their will. It is sad that a specific mindset is trying to dictate the whole nation to spend life according to their whims. The atrocities inflicted upon the beautiful child will bring doom to the architects of death and violence.

IFTIKHAR MIRZA               Islamabad

Brutality

“TO shoot a little girl in the head, inside your heart and soul must be dead,” this is what someone commented on the social media when he or she heard about another proof of the Taliban’s brutality.

Malala was injured along with other two girls when their school bus came under attack in Swat. Malala is the girl who showed the world the ugly face of forces which took over the Swat valley in 2009.

Malala, the National Peace Award winner, maintained a diary during the dark Taliban rule, detailing their misdeeds, brutality towards girls and women and broad day murders by hanging the people defying them.

Later, her diary was published in the world media. The Taliban were after her for a long time, and on Oct 9, they got an opportunity to take revenge on an innocent girl. I wish Taliban apologists, including those who were just a few days ago leading a march to protest against drone attacks, will open their eyes. The Taliban are after every sane person in the region; if not stopped today, tomorrow the Taliban apologists will also be on their hit list.

Malala was flown in an army chopper and is being treated at a military hospital in Peshawar. Please join me in praying for the girl who is a symbol of bravery against the forces of darkness.

M. KHAN                S. Arabia

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