Only the girl was killed in the blast, which occurred Sunday morning in the village of Uwshi in the Char Chino District, said Fazal Ahmad Shirzad, the police chief of Oruzgan Province.
Mr. Shirzad said he believed the girl was unaware that the bag she had been given by Taliban insurgents held a bomb. Her body was “taken to a nearby security check post, and the police called her relatives,” he said.
As I write this I think of my two daughters and wonder what kind of people would find that acceptable?
But then I realize that in fact, this has been the way of the Taliban since their creation in 1994 by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
Women were treated as virtual slaves not just within the burqa but also in the home and village.
Sexual minorities were brutally executed in publicly held displays in stadiums.
And now, the Taliban have been involved in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians across Afghanistan while their brethren, the Tehrek-e-Taliban Pakistan has been killing civilians in neighboring Pakistan with almost as much efficiency.
When will it end? When the leadership of the Taliban are brought to justice. We have called on the International Criminal Court to prosecute those responsible for this blatant disregard for any human rights or humanitarian law.
Until that happens, however, I can’t help but mourn the deaths of innocent civilians like that eight-year old girl who thought that she was being helpful.
She was someone’s daughter whose life was snuffed out because of elders who should have known better.