A Nation Freed, A Brutal Gangrape & Innocent Kids Murdered: Dec 16 Saw Life-Changing Events

December 16, a date that has its own role in history. It has seen some major events take place that shook us to our core and changed the world we live in. 3 major events in 3 countries in 3 separate years had long-lasting effects on the way we think. None of them will be forgotten in a hurry.

1971 India-Pakistan war

Rewind to 1971. The war between India and Pakistan was coming to an end. East Pakistan, was now officially Bangladesh as Pakistan surrender to India after nearly 2 weeks of fighting. The Pakistani troops, more than 90,000 in number laid down their arms before the Indian forces as Dhaka was liberated and a new nation was born. Pakistan is still hurting from being cut in half and in the coming years put sponsor terror attacks in Kashmir to destabilise the region and also back terror outfits for attacks in different parts of India.

Reuters

2012 gangrape case

Fast forward to 2012. Delhi for quite some time was known as the rape capital, but a brutal gangrape on a bus in the winter is what shook the city and the nation to its core. Why is that? Because of the sheer brutality of the crime. The girl, named Nirbhaya by the media, succumbed to her injuries less than 2 weeks later and the public outrage which had already reached boiling point, was now past its limit. The police arrested 6 people accused and 9 months later 4 of them were sentenced to death while the minor was given a lighter sentence. Another one had taken his own life in jail which many believe well have been a murder by other inmates. After tons of appeals and stays of execution, all 4 convicts were hanged on March 20, 2020. This ended a dark chapter in the history of the nation's capital.

PTI

Taliban terror attack in Peshawar school

A terror attack itself is a violent act, but when committed against innocent children, it crosses into uncharted territory. In 2014, the Taliban attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan. The gunmen infiltrated and opened fire on the students and teachers and by the time they were taken out by Pakistani forces nearly 150 people had been killed, over 130 of them children. They say that the smallest coffins are the heaviest and that day a number of families ended up burying their youngest members. The world was shaken by the brazenness of this attack and it drew condemnation from all quarters.

ARY

None of these events are related, they did not happen in the same country and in the long run will have nothing to do with each other. But they opened our eyes to the reality of what can or cannot happen. By sheer coincidence or maybe fate, they all took place on December 16.