They never came home:

Last night after I got home I set about reading the numerous articles about the school attack in Peshawar. A group of terrorists entered the school during class hours and started shooting in every class. They walked into classrooms asking kids which of their parents worked in the army. The naive kids raised their hands. They were immediately shot at point blank range.

Some kids tried to run and hide. Some splattered with the blood of their friends lay down on the floor pretending to be dead. So many little lives taken. My heart goes out to the little ones who were murdered. My heart breaks further for the survivors who were forced to witness such trauma at a young age. Forced to see friends and teachers getting murdered before their eyes, forced to face the mind-numbing fear of being the next target, forced to crawl down in terror in the place where they should feel the safest. At school.

The militants killed more than 140 people that day. The survivors will never be the same.

Apparently before releasing their guns into the vicinity the terrorists screamed "God is great!".

Pope Francis rightly said "Some of the best people in the world had no religion, some of the worst acts were committed in His name."

Although the majority sympathizes deeply with the nation, we can see subtle indications of a blame game taking shape. Under the guise of empathizing some remark that the nation is facing the karmic implications of the terror it inflicted on others. What goes around comes around they say. Some say that they should have been careful when they played with fire because it could burn down your own house some day. We see the self righteous people eager to blame the religion for this incident.

Strip down the ethnicity, religion, country, everything else to a core level and it comes down to this. Humans killing humans.

The terrorists had a motive. Their motive was revenge for their own families being targeted. Eye for an eye they say.

Funny it seems to me because they were only targeted as they had targeted others first. If you stuck by the eye for an eye principle the whole world would be blind.

When you kill all reasons, explanations, justifications and motives disappear. You stop being a victim. You just become a murderer.

It occurs to me how dangerous the ideology of self righteousness can be. How dangerous when you firmly believe that what you do is right and cannot be open to the possibility that you are wrong. How dangerous to assume that whatever you are doing is for the greater good. At what point can you draw the line between the greater good and the depraved actions of a mad man?

How poisonous religious texts can become when you take it upon yourself to interpret them. How an all loving, merciful God can become the justification for those who murder, torment and rape.

Where is the love?

People killing, people dying
Children hurt and you hear them crying
Can you practice what you preach?
Or would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
Because people got me, got me questioning
Where is the love?