The Washington Post
5 April 2016
By Tim Craig and Haq Nawaz Khan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Here in a city that has defined
Pakistan’s struggle against Islamist extremism, thousands of people have been
killed or injured in terrorist attacks. But now, if asked their greatest fear,
many residents cite one of the world’s other menaces: rats.
Over the past year, according to Peshawar’s mayor,
eight children have been killed by rats. At night, rodents spill out of the
city’s crude sewer system, chewing through doors and walls, feasting on food
supplies and overrunning hospitals and schools.
And these aren’t ordinary rats, residents say. These
creatures are big — so big that residents swear they can’t be native to the
area. And that gives rise to yet more conspiracy theories in a country already
prone to blaming its woes on outsiders. […]
Some say the problem began after a series of floods in
2010 and 2012 flushed rats from their nests in the mountains near the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Others believe the rats were bred on U.S. military
bases in Afghanistan and brought to Peshawar in the trucks that are
withdrawing coalition supplies on Pakistani highways.
One theory is that super-size rats came in the luggage
of refugees fleeing a military operation in Pakistan’s tribal belt, where
rumors of huge rodents have persisted for centuries.
There have been allegations that the rats were
genetically modified by a foreign power and left here to terrorize Muslims. […]
