Bilal Awaisi |
It was December 16th of this year. My friend and I were sitting in the office of a bank manager. Two of his daughters came straight from school to his office. Their father introduced them to us. They were grade 2 and grade 5 students. “What is the importance of December 16?” was the question thrown by my friend towards little kids. Both of them instantly started telling about the APS attack. My friend repeated the question.
The answer was same. I got what he wanted to hear from the students. When his second attempt went wasted, he modified his question. This time he asked in Urdu, “Saqoot-e-Dhaka kia ha?” The girls remained quiet. The manager intervened and said that they might study it in some higher grade.
We need to diminish our egos, at least for the sake of defeating our common enemy. This is the only way of our survival. It is high time we become united.
December 16th is a black day in the history of Pakistan. On that day, the sky cries blood, the earth trembles, and the sun and the moon watched in extreme fear and grief. On that day in 2014, terrorism engulfed many fresh flowers of our national garden. The kids at APS Peshawar were ruthlessly martyred. This is an unforgettable incident. My heart is as gloomy as that of any other Pakistani.
But in the sadness of this horrific event, we have forgotten the debacle of Dhaka. On the same day in 1971, a major change happened on the map of the world. East Pakistan was separated and it became a new country named Bangladesh. Many of our citizens and soldiers were killed during it. Unfortunately, our course books, our teachers, and our electronic and print media are quiet about the topic. It seems that the enemy has been successful in steering our minds to the place it wants.
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Let us try to control our minds ourselves. Let us go through the history of December 16th, 1971. Let us link this incident to APS attack and let us make a promise with ourselves to learn lessons from it.
We need to be united. All of our national policies should be inclusive. People should practically have their say in national affairs. They should not be misguided for individual interests. All Pakistanis should go hand in hand.
When Pakistan came into being, it had two wings namely East Pakistan and West Pakistan. These were geographically separated from each other by India. According to historians, when both the wings were trying to come on the same page after 1971 elections, India intervened and sent its terrorists as well as its troops to East Pakistan. The situation deteriorated. Resultantly, Pakistan lost its eastern wing on December 16th, 1971.
It seems that as a nation we have learned a little from this incident though we used to remember it every year before 2014. Ignoring the advice of unity by Quaid-e-Azam, we retained our divisions and consequently, we had to face another heartbreaking incident on the same day of 2014. The enemy succeeded in washing out the debacle of Dhaka from our minds by executing the APS attack. We must remember both of these incidents and must prepare ourselves to not let history repeat itself.
Firstly, we have to learn practicing patience as a nation. It is Pakistan, not Punjab, Sindh, KPK or Baluchistan that gives us an international identity. We must think as a Pakistani. We must learn to support each other. It will raise our worth worldwide.
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East Pakistan was separated and it became a new country named Bangladesh. Many of our citizens and soldiers were killed during it.
Secondly, we need to be united. All of our national policies should be inclusive. People should practically have their say in national affairs. They should not be misguided for individual interests. All Pakistanis should go hand in hand.
Thirdly, we should design a uniform syllabus for all of our students. National unity must be incorporated into this syllabus as a lesson from December 16th incidents. We have to prepare future generations for a better future. So they should be taught history and the lessons extracted from it.
We need to diminish our egos, at least for the sake of defeating our common enemy. This is the only way of our survival. It is high time we become united.
Bilal Awaisi – currently a govt. officer, aspires to join Central Superior Services; he writes on a variety of national and international issues for different journals; can be reached at mbilal.awaisi@gmail.com. The views expressed in this article are authors own and do not necessirelly reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.