Atrocity in Pakistan

Two days ago, if you were listening to the international news, it was all about the 'siege' in a chocolate shop in the rich financial centre of Sydney Australia. It was perpertrated by a lone disturbed gunman with a shotgun, holding hostages inside the shop, and was startling, though not very dreadful, until the police stormed the shop at 2 in the morning, killing the gunman and two other hostages.
The very next day this incident was dwarfed by an attack in Peshawar, Pakistan.  In an act of the utmost barbarism, even by Pakistan's violent standards, heavily armed militants stormed a school run by the army for children of military personnel, not to take hostages and demand ransoms, though that would have been bad enough, but with intent purely to massacre as many children and teachers as possible.  They burst into the morning assembly, where over 100 pupils were gathered, and shot nearly all of them, and then worked their way from classroom to classroom.  By the time the Pakistani army regained control, and killed the militants, 145 were dead, including 136 children.
The Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility, claiming that it was in revenge for the fairly successful military offensive against their tribal strongholds in the last few months.  Will this mark a turning point, a sea change, in the fight against the Taleban in the region?  Pakistan is the wierdest of countries, officially with a pro Western Government, but with factions of the military and certainly the secret sky agency (ISI) with sympathies to the Taleban.  The attention of the world has been focussed on ISIS in Syria and Iraq, but the old problems remain.
Will it make a difference, will the Taleban and other extremist groups ever be rooted out, or will the politics and violence in the region continue as it always has done?
Meanwhile, forget about your family and financial problems this festive season.  If you have an illness, forget about it.  Just hold your children tight, and give thanks they go to school in a peaceful part of the world.