By Syed Jafar Askari
No more “good” and “bad” Taliban as Pakistan responds to a horrific slaughter at a Peshawar school.
The shocking slaughter of 148 people, including more than 130 children, at an Army-run school on Warsak Road in Peshawar (Pakistan) on December 16 has outraged the world. The massacre – the work of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – speaks volumes of the terrorist outfit’s anger and desperation following the killing of their associates in the ongoing Pakistan military operation, known as Zarb-e-Azb.
Responding to the Pakistan Taliban’s single deadliest attack, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif was categorical: The army would continue to go after the terrorists and their facilitators until they are eradicated. In an operation that has been underway since June, the military claims to have already killed more than 1,500 Taliban fighters. Very likely, then, this week’s attack was meant as a message for the Pakistan Army.
If so, it may well backfire. After this attack, determination to defeat the militants has never been higher. Certainly, some religious political parties, their leaders, and the clerics of religious seminaries continue to oppose the operation. But the vast majority of Pakistanis are behind the effort to eliminate the terrorists.
The success of the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, demonstrates that Pakistan is no longer a safe haven for any terrorist organization.
Read the full story at The Diplomat