Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Magnanimous gesture

It was indeed magnanimous on the part of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to pardon the 14-year-old Pakistani boy who was “trained” in a madrassa in the South Waziristan region to become a suicide bomber.

But one wonders whether Rafiq Ullah will now find his way to a regular school or to the same old madrassa. The pardon, we hope, has convinced him that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

P.U. Krishnan,
Udhagamandalam

The picture of Mr. Karzai patting the boy on his cheek and pardoning him (July 16) is telling. His magnanimous act, however, can only be symbolic and not a solution for the “painful fact” that “we are facing today.”

That a lad of 14 who should be in school, learning geometry, geography, and history is sent to blow himself up does not speak well of the past and future of nations such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

R.K. Divakara,
Bangalore

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