Some Pakistan Militants Denounce School Attack, Amid National Outrage

Students hold candles for the victims of the Pakistan Taliban attack on the Army Public School, during a rally in Lahore

As Pakistanis unite to grief the killings of 132 schoolchildren by the Pakistani Taliban, many other militant groups have been quick to condemn the carnage too. Reuters report:

Most such groups have slaughtered civilians themselves, but the wave of outrage following the school attack is threatening the relative freedom they enjoy in Pakistan.

The country is home to a range of armed militant groups. Some, like the Pakistani Taliban, fight against the state. Others have cosier ties with the authorities who use them against India and to jostle for influence in Afghanistan.

Whether Islamabad moves against all of them equally will show whether the school massacre has finally spurred authorities to tackle militancy seriously, said Senator Afrasiab Khattak. “They are all terrorists and the state has to clearly oppose them in all shapes and colors,” he said.

“So far they have not done so.” The Afghan Taliban, a group Pakistani jihadists look up to, were the first of the Sunni Islamist armed groups to denounce the school attack as unIslamic, despite often killing civilians themselves. An Afghan Taliban suicide bomber killed more than 50 people at a volleyball match last month.

Some Pakistani Taliban, including powerful splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, quickly sided with their Afghan patrons.