NEW DELHI -- As Pakistan prepared to bury its dead, people around the world used social media to channel their hurt and anger at pictures of rows of tiny coffins that carried some of the 132 children dead in yesterday’s Taliban attack on a military-run school in Peshawar.
Actress Mia Farrow, along with hundreds of others on the Internet, started to trend the phrase “the smallest coffins are the heaviest” which had recently gone viral on a Reddit thread used to share six word stories. The line has been inspired by flash fiction often attributed to Ernest Hemingway - 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn'.
Soon people started using the line to caption heartbreaking pictures of parents weeping inconsolably over dead children and processions carrying the little coffins to the graveyard.
Pakistan’s neighbour and arch rival India joined Peshawar residents in mourning, tweeting messages of solidarity and hope in the face of horrific violence.
"One by one, all of the profile pictures of my friends on Facebook went black," Haider Javed Warraich wrote in The Atlantic. Many Facebook users decided to blacken their display pictures yesterday to protest the gruesome killing of children in Peshawar.
Reuters described the day after as one of mourning. Taliban militants killed over a 100 students at the Peshawar school yesterday as revenge against Army operations in the region. The report said people around the country lit candles and staged overnight vigils as parents prepared to bury their children during mass funerals in and around Peshawar.
Snipers manned the military-run Army Public School which wore a deserted look and army vehicles with masked soldiers carrying automatic rifles patrolled the entrance, the report said.
On Twitter, users trended the hash tags #PeshawarAttack, #IndiawithPakistan, #PakSchoolSiege and #PrayForPeshawar to not just tweet messages of outrage and anger but also to offer empathy and support to the parents who lost their children in one of the worst violence Pakistan has seen in recent times.
The smallest coffins are the heaviest
#PakistanSchoolAttack#Peshawar
— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) December 17, 2014
the quote “The smallest coffins are the heaviest” is one of the most heartbreaking things i've ever read. such a tragedy 😔#PrayForPeshawar
— jasmeen sekhon (@jsekhonn) December 17, 2014
"The smallest coffins are the heaviest to pull" - My condolences go out to the parents who lost their children in the #PeshawarAttack
— Sandeep Soni (@SandeepSoniSays) December 17, 2014
In Peace,Sons bury their Fathers,In war Fathers bury their Sons.The smallest coffins are the heaviest indeed#PeshawerAttack#PrayForPeshawar
— aadil shah (@aabasshah) December 17, 2014
"SMALLEST COFFINS ARE THE HEAVIEST." Those poor children did not deserve this. #Hatedterrorists
— Shivanand Pandit (@goapandit) December 17, 2014
The smallest coffins are the heaviest #PrayForPeshawar
— Modinho (@Momereh) December 17, 2014
The Smallest Coffins are the Heaviest. pic.twitter.com/X8LLyhy5uc
— VKy (@itsVeekee) December 17, 2014