...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
school attack has shown that concerns that TTP factions would surpass the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
in brutality are now a reality. Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
's group, which targeted Malala Yousafzai
...a Pashtun blogger and advocate for girls' education from Mingora, in Swat. She started blogging at age 11-12. She was 15 when a Talib boarded her school bus and shot her in the head in 2012. She was evacuated to a hospital in Britain and the Pak Taliban vowed to kill her and her father. Among other awards, she received the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, which she deserved more than Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Yasser Arafat, or Rigoberta Menchu...
, grabbed credit. The TTP front man Muhammad Khorasani stated that the operation conducted was an act of reprisal for the ongoing Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
operation in North Wazoo and was carried out to avenge the killings of family members of the TTP cadre. He stressed that the objective was to inflict pain by specifically targeting the school.
Unquestionably, the TTP has committed war crimes. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) mandates that all actors -- state and non-state alike -- are bound to obey this body of law. Further, transgressions are not affected by reciprocity. War crimes, whether committed in retaliation or otherwise, are equally violative of international criminal law and subject to the same punishments, which can be awarded by either international or national criminal tribunals -- arguably even military tribunals -- constituted under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. This is without prejudice to the fact that non-state actors including turbans can also be tried under the domestic criminal justice system.
Under Article 51 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, now a part of customary international law, civilian populations and individual civilians cannot be made the objects of attack, and attacks against such person(s) by way of reprisal are prohibited. Under Article 3 common to all Geneva Conventions persons taking no active part in hostilities cannot be targeted; murder and the taking of hostages are strictly prohibited.
Children as a sub-category of civilians, in fact, enjoy the greatest amount of protection during conflict. International law often requires proactive measures for guaranteeing their safety and well-being. These forms of protections are explicitly mentioned through numerous provisions of the fourth Geneva Convention, Article 77 of the First Additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions, Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Further it is a contravention of the Islamic law of nations to target non-combatants including children, women and old men.
Hence, it is beyond contestation that the cold-blooded murder of children and school staff members is a grave war crime punishable under a variety of adjudicative forums.
With regard to the child, the TTP is guilty of another war crime: conscripting, enlisting or using children under 15 to participate actively in hostilities.
Additionally, if it is confirmed that the attack was carried out by TTP members wearing military uniforms while using lethal force, and if the uniforms worn establish that these turbans were feigning as members of the Pakistain armed forces, then the group is also guilty of the war crime of perfidy -- killing or wounding treacherously individuals belonging to a hostile nation or army. Treachery in war is also prohibited under Islamic law.
Condemnations of the attacks from world leaders are pouring in. The UN secretary general has termed the attack as 'blood-curdling', and Leila Zerrougui, the special representative of the secretary general for children and armed conflict, has issued a statement calling the targeting " a heinous crime ... senseless and intolerable".
This incident, while devastating, was not completely unexpected. The nation has witnessed a spate of gruesome attacks by the forces of Evil against ethnic and religious minorities. The latest attack is serving as a catalyst for the nation to introspect. Many are now openly questioning Pakistain's foreign policy and national security imperatives. The prime minister has lifted the moratorium on the capital punishment of convicted terrorists. Public pressure will surely push the state to switch to a war footing. The revamping of the security apparatus to more effectively tackle the menace of terrorism and the Taliban seems imminent.
The key, however, is to make any structural changes after careful deliberations. The criminal justice system is already under enormous stress. Further draconian adjustments in the criminal law on the premise of national security will undermine the fragile constitutional framework of human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
in Pakistain. While criminal law as a general body of law is not best suited for dealing with the fallout of Zarb-e-Azb, the specialised body of IHL is. IHL provides a transparent, accountable, yet effective mechanism for fighting and bringing to justice the forces of Evil and Death Eaters involved in large-scale terrorism.
It is, therefore, imperative that the state more effectively employs international humanitarian law to fight this war. Such an approach will allow the armed forces the space to act without stressing the constitutional protections and safeguards that prevail in times of peace and in normal criminal settings.