South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Claude Rakisits writes for The Strategist on the recent Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan that killed 148 civilians:
Last week’s horrific terrorist attack at a military-funded school in Peshawar in the northwest of Pakistan which killed 148 civilians, including 132 children, is without any doubt the worst in the country’s history, judged by the sheer depth of its depravity. Even though Pakistanis have gotten used to living with terrorism for over a decade, the scale of this act has shocked them to the core.
By deliberately targeting children in school and killing them in cold blood, the Pakistani Taliban, who claimed responsibility for the attack, have managed to unite all sections of society against them. The government of Pakistan and in particular the military, whose children were the victims, have no intention of letting this crime go unpunished. Moreover, the long-term repercussions of this attack will be felt beyond the borders of Pakistan.