THE list of depredations carried out by religious extremists grew ever longer on Thursday.

This time in Kenya, where gunmen belonging to the Somalia-based terrorist group Al Shabaab massacred at least 147 people, mainly students, at the Garissa University campus during a 15 hour-long siege, the worst ever attack on Kenyan soil since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi.

The town of Garissa lies almost 200km from the border with Somalia, and the attack is the latest act of retaliation carried out by the Al Shabaab against a joint Somali-Kenyan military operation to destroy the Al Qaeda-linked group.

Know more: Shebab militants massacre 147 students at university in Kenya

For Pakistanis, the atrocity bore a chilling resemblance to the APS Peshawar attack less than four months ago.

Around the same number of students and teachers were murdered that day by militants of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan who went from classroom to classroom hunting down unarmed children, leaving behind a trail of blood on scattered schoolbooks, devastated families and a nation in mourning.

Earlier, even among the most violent of ideologically driven groups there were some red lines. Now, however, the distinction between combatants and innocents is increasingly blurred.

Nothing is sacred, not even children or young people studying in schools and colleges. In fact, students and/or educational infrastructure — not to mention other soft targets — are increasingly being targeted by terrorists, whether by Boko Haram in Nigeria or the TTP in Pakistan.

A worldview more twisted and nihilistic can scarcely be imagined. There was another sinister element to the attack in Garissa, one that is common to several recent acts of terrorism by Al Shabaab in Kenya.

The campus attackers singled out Christians for murder, a move calculated to drive a wedge between the country’s vast Christian majority and its sizeable Muslim minority.

It would be doubly unfortunate were such intentions to bear fruit, for nothing would suit religious extremists more than a world riven along the lines of faith and engaged in a never-ending, apocalyptic battle.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2015

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