Why Nobody Weeps for Pakistan

On the eve of 13th of November 2015 world was shocked by another terrorist attack in Paris. With more than 100 casualties and many more injured this was indeed a devastating tragedy .

In the aftermath of the attacks social media erupted. Messages of support started coming in from all corners of the globe. Politicians , celebrities and social workers alike condemned these attacks and French flag was displayed on iconic structures worldwide from London to New York.

As a international student in London from Pakistan I for one was shocked not only by the attacks but the reaction of international community to these attacks! Pakistan have lost thousands of its civilians to terrorism in last decade. Unfortunately we don\'t see a proportionate reaction from international community to terrorist attacks in Pakistan and one may ask why? Are lives of Pakistanis not worth as much as those living in France?

For many of us back home these attacks don\'t really mean much any more. Target killing in Karachi has become a common occurrence and something that we can live with. death toll is just a number now and unless the number increases significantly on a odd day our daily lives are not disturbed. Life goes on as normal .

Our reaction to any terrorist attack is to check first how many people have died and then we decide if it is a event worth shredding tears on or to be upset about! if the number is not high enough we simply carry on and routine life continues.

Since we have accepted terrorist attacks as an acceptable reality of our daily lives so has the world. For Pakistani lives to matter to those who do not have the privileged of being a Pakistani we need to start caring about our citizens at home first. Despite all the difficulties we face today and no matter how often we have these terrorists destroying the peace of our Pak Sar Zameen we must not lose empathy and compassion.

What makes us different to those who use religion as an excuse to achieve their political aspiration and slaughter people is that we care! Murder of innocents should always devastate us. If we stop being bothered by loss of life then surely those terrorists have won. we should never accept terrorism as an acceptable part of our lives .

It would be unreasonable to expect foreigners to be concerned with calamities and misfortune that our land faces on daily bases when we are not troubled by it ourselves unless the body count reaches a certain number. One can only hope that value of Pakistani lives increases in our own eye and our attitudes towards terrorism changes in near future but until then we only have ourselves to blame.