The Taliban is known for its brutality. It has targeted children in the past. Still, the attack on an army school in Peshawar on Tuesday was shocking in its scale and barbarity. At least 141 people were killed in the attack, 132 of them children. The Tehreek-e-Taliban, or the Pakistan Taliban as it’s widely known, has taken responsibility for the attack which comes on the heels of an offensive by the Pakistan army in the country’s tribal areas against the militants. It says the children were killed because “we want them (the army) to feel the pain when your loved ones are killed”. That’s ghoulish logic. But it’s meant to be so, because for the Taliban, violence defines both its ideology and modus operandi.

The attack points to the terrible state of affairs in Pakistan. The State is paying a heavy price for the dubious double game it’s been playing for years with religious extremists. Even now, when government and army leaders say they will step up the military campaign against the Taliban, there are other militant groups such as the Haqqani Network that receive support from these very institutions.

Pakistan is a victim of its own history. It joined the American-sponsored jihadi project in the 1970s to train militants and send them to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. But when the Soviets withdrew, these militants were used to gain leverage in Kabul and weaken India. The 9/11 attacks and the subsequent American attack on Afghanistan made matters worse as large groups of militants crossed over to Pakistan. Some of these groups formed the Pakistan Taliban, and started fighting the Pakistani army by 2007.

Pakistan allowed itself to be used as a pawn by the Americans in the Cold War great game. It thought it could always use and control extremists. All this boomeranged. And that’s where Pakistan becomes a lesson for other countries such as India. Keep extremists at bay, stick to a modern secular path of national development, else nation-states will have to pay a big price.

Assistant Editor

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