SOMETIMES it is possible to get inside the minds of those who have carried out terrorist acts, and comprehend what the terrorists have aimed to achieve.

What is the grievance they have, is there no peaceful method of resolving it, what concessions would bring an end to their violence?

There is not, for example, a scrap of support in my mind for the terrorist outrages carried out by the Provisional IRA over three decades from the seventies.

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But the IRA, and its party, Sinn Fein, had clear political objectives; they did observe some rough and ready ‘rules’ about what kind of violence served their purpose, and what did not.

Crucially, they were, when faced with a military stalemate in the 1990s, ready to sit down and negotiate a peace.

But there are some terrorist atrocities which defy any understanding.

They are perpetrated by individuals who may have the same biological characteristics as the rest of us, who breathe the same air – but beyond that have no connection with the human race.

So it is with the Pakistan Taliban, who carried out the unbelievably savage killing on Tuesday of 132 children, and nine staff, at the army school in Peshawar, north Pakistan.

So appalling were these unspeakable acts that even the Afghan Taliban, which share roots with the Pakistan Taliban, and much else besides, have condemned the killings.

This atrocity has sent shock waves across the world, but none will have been greater than those felt by the Pakistan-heritage diaspora, and not least in our area.

Some will have relatives in Peshawar.

But wherever their home area, this attack will raise really serious anxieties for them about the future of Pakistan. Founded in 1947 with the partition of British India, Pakistan has made some progress in recent years, away from the military rule and coup d’étât of previous decades.

It has nonetheless been wracked by violence.

Let us hope and pray that there is such sustained, and universal revulsion within Pakistan society that at last this potentially great nation can come together, and fight for a better future.