SAUDI forces have killed dozens of innocent Muslim children travelling in a school bus. Even the Israeli air force is not this indiscriminate in bombing and killing our Palestinian brothers.

If asked for their comments, I am sure the Saudi foreign minister, in his innocent and sickening narrative style, will justify this atrocity by calling it a legitimate and pre-emptive action in self-defence as these children would have one day grown up to become terrorists.

Only a few months ago, we had watched a similar footage being shown on Western media of children being treated for alleged gas attack by government forces in Syria. Within a week, this was followed by the launching of more than a 100 missiles against the Syrian regime targets by the allied US, UK and French forces.

Saifuddin M. Ali

Karachi

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THE world again witnessed a tragedy in which the Saudi-UAE military alliance attacked a school bus in Yemen’s province Saada, killing several young children.

For the last few years, the whole world is silently witnessing the pain and torture of the people of Yemen. According to this alliance, they targeted ‘missile launchers’. But do such strikes really conform to international and humanitarian laws?

This illusion created by them simply vanished when one saw the pictures of mutilated bodies. How can the United Nations remain silent? The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has also been pushing the warring parties to restart peace talks.

The further disheartening fact is that major areas of Yemen do not have proper access to medicines and treatment, while the Saudi-Emirati coalition is continuously targeting civilian areas. This coalition is backed by Western powers. These attacks are condemned by world leaders but no one adopts a strategic approach to effect peace.

This is not about religion. This is simply about terrorism being committed on a huge scale, while we helplessly watch the states like Yemen, Palestine and Kashmir burn.

Kinanah Shahbaz

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018