(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)
Today is April 14, 2016. Exactly two years ago, on April 14, 2014, a terrorist group Boko Haram abducted 276 school girls, mostly aged between 16 and 18, from a secondary school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. About 50 of the girls escaped, but others were remained in captivity.
Most of the 276 girls taken from Chibok on April 14, 2014 were Christian. They are believed to have been forced to convert to Islam by their terrorist captors.
To demand the return of the girls, politicians, celebrities and the public globally united under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls . The United States of America’s first lady Michelle Obama and Prime Minister of the UK David Cameron were among those, who joined the campaign.
Two years later, the girls are still missing.
Now, a video recording has emerged. CNN has obtained this video in which at least 15 of the kidnapped “Chibok Girls” are shown.
This video clip has proved that some of the kidnapped girls are still alive and in captivity of terrorists.
Kidnapping of 276 school girls from a school in Chibok was not the only incident in Nigeria, where students were kidnapped by Boko Haram. There are reports that about 2,000 girls and boys have been kidnapped by Boko Haram since the beginning of 2014. They could have been used as cooks, sex slaves, fighters and even suicide bombers.
International efforts should be made to rescue all these kidnapped girls and boys. The United Nations should do something concrete in this direction. Watching silently what is happening in Nigeria gives wrong message to terrorists everywhere. It is happening in Nigeria now. It can happen anywhere in the world, if international community does not care about it.