Gul and Yasin, close friends in life, were together in death at Peshawar’s Army Public School. Like ‘martyrs’ clad in their school uniform, they were buried together too. The burial of their assassins may not have been as laudatory. But they too have been praised to the skies as martyrs by their handlers who also describe themselves as ‘students’ (Taliban).
Both Gul, Yasin and their killers had martyrdom thrust upon them. But it would be preposterous to suggest an equivalence between them, although sacrifice (Qurbani) is a key concept of their faith.
One band pursuing modern education (jadeedi taleem) were simply butchered and became scapegoats-turned-heroes of the sort that the champion of existential philosophy Albert Camus would have liked us all to be: martyrs for a cause “worth dying for”.
The killers, brainwashed on a diet of so-called traditional education (quadeemi taleem), became mere ciphers: zeroes, not heroes. For, as Camus warned, while there were causes worth dying for, “there are none worth killing for”!
And this is exactly what the lion-hearted Tahira Qazi, Army School’s head teacher, has shown by her unflinching rejection of life! Despite being rescued from the carnage and ignoring all warnings, she walked back. For, she “couldn’t go into safety leaving my children among the beasts”.
Upon being coerced to answer where she’d hidden her wards, she defiantly asked the terrorists to “Talk to me! I am their Mother!” They may have set fire to her and shot her. But she ensured that her example would outshine their pathetic fire.
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