MORE than ever, the Internet has become a huge sounding board for ideas, concerns and rage. Bloggers and anonymous correspondents vent their feelings about everything under the sun. Jokes, news, views and angry accusations cascade through cyberspace.

As my email address is in the public domain due to this column, my inbox is so full that it is difficult to separate the junk mail from worthwhile material. Considering the volume of my mail, I am pretty ruthless while hitting the delete button. Often, I probably consign the gold to the junk folder, together with the dross.

But every once in a while, a clear, pure voice penetrates this cyber-babble. In this case, I was about to hit ‘delete’ yet again as I quickly scanned my inbox, but the subject line of an email intrigued me: ‘Press release from the Youth of Parachinar’.

Curious, I opened it and found a couple of pictures of children holding banners outside the Islamabad Press Club.

The attached press release informed me that the kids were homeless orphans from Parachinar, the administrative headquarters of the tribal agency of Kurram. The town has been the scene of vicious sectarian fighting between Shia and Sunni tribes over the last few years, and its road link with Peshawar has often been cut. This has caused great hardship and shortages, especially during cold winter months.

Although Parachinar was once a serene hill station where people used to flock from the plains to escape the hot summers, it is now a forlorn, sad place. Caught up in an unending sectarian conflict, it has also attracted jihadi terrorists pushed there by army action elsewhere in Fata.

The brief press release issued on behalf of the orphans of Parachinar states: “We don’t know why our parents were killed. We are missing our home, but can’t go.” It goes on to quote Mohammed Irshad of class 5: “I don’t know why militants killed my loving father who was a peaceful person. Now I face financial problems in depositing my school fees.” Muzammil Hussain said:

“The Taliban are very bad as they even kill children. Perhaps the militants don’t have their own kids.”

This is the true face of the Taliban and their allies: evil, cruel and utterly ruthless. I wonder if people like Hamid Gul and Imran Khan met these kids and tried to console them. Or were they too busy going from one TV studio to the next, urging negotiations with these extremist killers?

Those who preach appeasement have already forgotten the hard-won lesson from Swat: we just cannot trust these thugs who kill in the name of Islam. After an agreement that saw the Swat valley being handed over to the local Taliban, the latter promptly tried to take over the neighbouring district of Malakand. And during their mercifully brief rule, they killed scores, dumping their bodies in public places. They also blew up schools and colleges, and flogged people, all for their bizarre version of Islam.

Apart from civilian victims, we also forget the sacrifices of those killed combating these terrorists. For instance, Lt Yasir Abbas was prominently named in media coverage for his undoubted bravery in confronting the militants who infiltrated the Mehran naval base to launch their daring attack. But the soldiers and firemen who also lost their lives hardly got a mention.

This is just as true for the thousands of soldiers, policemen and paramilitary jawans killed in action across Pakistan while fighting the Taliban and their ilk. How many of our politicians and TV warriors have spent any time with our troops? Apart from the perfunctory visits to hospitals for photo opportunities with the wounded, none of our leaders, or, indeed, members of civil society, seem concerned with the fate of those defending us.

In Britain, two major charities, Help our Heroes and Army of Angels, raise funds to help wounded soldiers. Recently, a friend asked a farmer to allow his field to be used as a temporary parking area for a party he was organising. When asked how much the farmer wanted to be paid, my friend was told to make a contribution to Help our Heroes.

Although many Brits are opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the troops fighting there are widely supported. The other evening, I watched the first of a documentary series on the war in Afghanistan. The film, composed partly of sequences shot by soldiers of an infantry unit on their cellphones and hand-held cameras, focused on a patrol in Helmand and a Taliban ambush.

The soldier at the centre of this loose story was Rifleman Chris Gray. Fatally wounded in the action, he was quickly flown to a hospital in a chopper, and died on the way. Much of the footage is about the reaction of his friends and officers in the unit to his death. This gritty film brings home the reality and horrors of war in a way Hollywood never could.

And when Chris Gray returned to the UK in a coffin, it would have been to the RAF base in Lyneham. From here, his remains would have been carried solemnly on a hearse through the nearby town of Wootton Basset, where the citizens, some of them retired servicemen in their old uniforms, would stand by the road with heads bowed. This tradition to honour the fallen has won the town the Queen’s recognition, and it has been renamed Royal Wootton Basset.

I mention this example just to highlight the callous way in which we in Pakistan treat our troops. While all UK casualties are named in the media, often with tributes from their comrades, we have few words to praise those killed and wounded in the line of duty. Many of our soldiers are serving under the UN flag in different parts of the world. How often have they been visited by any of our leaders?

Years ago, I.A. Rehman, the tireless human rights activist and veteran journalist, was over at my flat during a visit to Karachi.

There, my son Shakir asked him why the West made such a fuss over its victims of terrorism while we in Pakistan didn’t. I’ll never forget Rehman Sahib’s reply: “The value of a human life is as high as a society places it.”

Those wishing to appease terrorists should remember that a civilised state does not negotiate with killers: it arrests them and tries them. And if they resist arrest, it shoots them.

irfan.husain@gmail.com