Dubai: Pakistani expats, diplomats and businessmen have spoken out against the Peshawar attack in unprecedentedly strong terms.
They said the Taliban attackers who killed 132 children and nine adults during a raid on a school in Peshawar “were not even human”.
According to Pakistanis who spoke to Gulf News on Wednesday, the gunmen should be “disowned” from being considered human, “let alone called Muslims or Pakistanis”.
Addressing a gathering at his official Dubai residence, Javed Jalil Khattak, Pakistan’s consul general, said the “menace of terrorism” would be “uprooted and flung out”.
“It is important to realise no one had paid a heavier price that Pakistanis, we are the biggest victims,” Khattak said after a funeral prayer held on Wednesday in absentia of the victims.
“The entire nation has suffered a huge setback from the attack,” he said, but added Pakistanis were now closer than ever before “to face up to this kind of senselessness”.
“It is time to show the world we are all united. This gathering shows that solidarity.”
Prominent UAE-based Pakistani businessman Sadruddin Hashwani warned “this barbarism cannot be allowed to happen again, so no children in other nations of the world suffer in this way ever”.
He added: “Even animals don’t do this. I strongly acknowledge there is not any association with the attackers to Muslims, Pakistanis or even humanity. But condemning this lowest of the low act is not enough, it is time for action.”
That action should include assistance from the international community to help Pakistan fight armed groups, he added.
Dr Ikramullah Al Nasir, a senior UK-qualified dermatologist in Dubai, said it was a misplaced idea to suggest Tuesday’s attack was a “Pakistan problem” only.
“It’s a human tragedy, it is the death of humanity in my eyes. The barbaric people who did this are neither to be called Muslim, Pakistani or even human.”
He warned that if children are not protected from extremist ideology or acts, “the entire nation that has to pay the price in the future.”
