On Tuesday, seven attackers from the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan killed 132 children and 9 staff in a school in Peshawar in Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border.
The TTP said the assault on the military-run school was in retaliation for the Pakistan Army’s offensive since June in northwest Pakistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has reinstituted the death penalty for terrorism in light of the attack.
I spoke with BBC Hereford and Worcester on Tuesday afternoon about the attack, explaining why — paradoxically, given the death toll — the Taliban’s assault is a sign of its weakened position:
You present yourself as strong even when you are on the defensive. The facts on the ground are that the Taliban have been pushed back over the last six months. And it looks like this will be a sustained offensive — this time, the Pakistani Army are in it for the long haul.
This attack today will only that determination, if not to wipe out the Taliban, at least to contain it and weaken it.
(Featured Photo: Bilawal Erbab/EPA)
