Merciless child killers

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has never been a national hero in Pakistan, but some years back when it emerged as an umbrella outfit espousing the cause of a wide variety of religious extremists it did enjoy sympathetic support of some sections of the Pakistani society.
Operating as it does from the land of tribal warriors who made history by stoutly resisting foreign invaders it also evoked a kind of folkloric romance. To some, its members represented the Pushtun culture in its most pristine form, in that the tribesmen are supposed to be tough and irreconcilable to their enemies but generous and giving to all others. Among their traditions of which they never stop taking pride is their respect for women and children - even if they belong to hostile tribes and enemies. Perhaps, that is no more the case with the Taliban.
Claiming responsibility for the murderous attack on a school bus near Peshawar on Tuesday the Tehrik-i-Taliban says it would do more such killings. Shortly after the attack in which four boys and the bus driver were killed and more than a dozen wounded, a spokesman for Dera Adamkhel chapter of TTP told journalists: "when we can fight the army attacking civilians is not a problem for us". And that their brutal act is the TTP's revenge against the schoolchildren's parents who have raised a 'lashkar' to fight Taliban militants with the help of the government.
Not only are the TTP foot soldiers willing tools in the hands of their brute masters they are also harbingers of complete darkness; in Khyber Agency alone they burnt down or exploded some 71 government-run schools. So if there are doubts about their integrity and their so-called mission to obtain conditions of true Islam in Pakistan one would not contest. Certainly the TTP has been hijacked by the enemies of both Islam and Pakistan. If not, its leadership should come forward and explain how come the cause of Islam is served by wanton acts of murder and pillage. Of course, the KP lawmakers have condemned the attack on the school bus; they are genuinely pained and tormented over this ghastly act of terrorists.
Who could convey that agony more graphically than Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain who lost his only son to the terrorists last year. His profound words spoken on the floor of the house, therefore, bear repetition: "We have been burying the bodies of our elders, mothers and sisters; we have been watching the desecration of our mosques and shrines; and destruction of hospitals and schools. But now they are killing our children, who are our future. Will the whole nation stand up against the terrorists." The answer has yet to come. The fact is that the religious right is not putting its full weight behind the government, which, in turn, too is lacking in deep thinking over the curse of terrorism.
Except for the military operations against the suspected terrorist strongholds not much in terms of political means is in evidence. Can we say with any amount of certainty that the government wants to talk to the extremists and militants? When Mian Iftikhar Hussain asks 'the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan to overcome their trust-deficit for the success in the fight against terrorism' he, in fact, questions the credibility of the so-called strategic dialogue between the three governments and other such moves.
The bitter truth is that as the Afghan imbroglio enters the endgame round, the three of them are pursuing independent courses, which may be very much at each other's cross-purposes. Pakistan co-operated with the international coalition whole-heartedly and paid a heavy price for that, but hasn't received due acknowledgement. Now it is left with no other option but to search for a home-grown solution, of which a deal with militants is an inescapable reality. How to go about that the government must think of and cater for, even if it requires inventing an entirely out-of-the-box approach and solution.