Tuesday's massacre of scores of schoolchildren in Peshawar was not the first outrage committed by the Pakistani Taliban, whose previous targets have included markets, mosques and hotels as well as military installations and airports. The mass targeting of children, many of whom were shot in the head at close range, does however represent a new level of depravity for the group. The Taliban gunmen, explosives strapped to their bodies, apparently selected the Army Public School and College for the attack as an act of retaliation for a major army operation against the militants in North Waziristan last June. Tuesday's killers acted without mercy, burning teachers alive and shooting children as they sat at their desks.
The massacre has united Pakistanis in anger against the insurgents and prime minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday promised to pursue the terrorists responsible, even if it meant carrying out actions beyond Pakistan's borders. "The nation needs to get united and face terrorism. We need unflinching resolve against this plague," he said. Regrettably, Mr Sharif also seized the opportunity to lift a moratorium on the death penalty that has been in place for the past six years. This is bad news, not only for the 8,000 Pakistani prisoners on death row but for the country's tentative, faltering moves towards greater respect for human rights.
Earlier atrocities have drawn similar pledges from Pakistan's leaders to tackle the extremist groups within their borders, but the ambivalence of the army and intelligence services towards the insurgents has always reasserted itself. The security apparatus has been slow to act against Islamist extremists, not only out of timidity in the face of public opinion, but also because it viewed the terrorists as arms-length assets in Pakistan's decades-long rivalry with India.
Tuesday’s outrage could provide the impetus for a rethink of Pakistan’s approach to the insurgents, a possibility that may have been in the minds of the Afghan Taliban when it took the unusual step of condemning the attack. “The intentional killing of innocent people, women and children are against the basics of Islam, and this criterion must be considered by every Islamic party and government,” the group said.
The western powers need Pakistan's co-operation in the fight against Islamist extremism both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistani ambivalence towards the militants is likely to reassert itself, however, unless meaningful steps are taken to promote reconciliation with India. Instability in Pakistan has security implications for both India and Afghanistan. Pakistan's status as a nuclear power makes its security an issue of global concern as the loss of control of its nuclear arsenal to a militant group would have potentially catastrophic consequences.