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Within an enclosed compound of a madrassa, people were celebrating the graduation ceremony of children who have memorized the whole Quran. The air was filled with the scent of perfumes. Kids with smiling faces looked like little angels, wearing white shalwar kameez and a turban on their head. The proudest grin spread across on father’s face when he saw his Hafiz-e-Quran son sitting on a chair with a certificate in his hand. On the other side of a madrassa, the chief made tasty food for this occasion.
A thundering sound of US-backed Afghan Army jets and helicopters shook the crowd. A child panicked and screamed, “They will throw a bomb on us…”. An aged man calmed him down by saying, “No kid, they won’t..”. And then in a split-second…..Boom!
In a flash of light, the madrassa erupted in fire. Now, smiling faces of angels were replaced with moaning and mutilated victims. They could not even breath in thick black smoke. The Quran was covered in blood on the floor. The red carpet turned more red color with pieces of human body parts. And the ground soaked the blood debris. A wounded child laid on the floor and questions to himself, “What is my fault?”
More than a hundred students martyred along with parents, scholars, and teachers. The incident has devastated the world of many families, the mother will never see her dear child and husband again.
But the bitter reality is that when it comes to Islam, there is no Facebook profile picture frame to show solidarity with the victims, no massive protest by UN and other human rights organizations and no satisfying media coverage.One thing the world should accept is that:
“Children are children, whether they are killed by militants or military”
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