A Solemn Oath.

Five years or fifty, the wounds of December 16 2014 will never heal properly. 144 innocent lives snuffed out on a chilly winter morning, 144 families devastated for an eternity in an instant. The Army Public School Peshawar attack cannot be forgotten: and for the salvation of Pakistan it should never be.

Every year the pain reminds us of what we have lost; it reminds us of what we can yet lose; it reminds us of the oath we have made. Nothing will be able to bring back the joy that the parents of the slain 144 lost, but we as a nation can begin by delivering swift and righteous retribution. It was heartening to see the nation unite in grief, and then, unite in resolve. The entire nation, from the military to the politicians all the way down to the common man decided that the scourge of terrorism must end once and for all. Five years later we can see the result of that iron conviction.

Countless militants and their hideouts in Pakistan and beyond were wiped out, their networks dismantled...