The deadly conflagration going on in Syria is a matter of great concern. Millions of people have lost their lives or have their limbs amputated and many more have taken refuge to European countries. Women fell prey to moral turpitude and honor killing and children were killed in cold blood. To their unmitigated chagrin, the war has not only undermined their moral values and cultural norms but also wrecked havoc on country’s economy. One will recoil with a strong sense of disgust with the lugubrious story of Syrian war victims. The megalomania and egotism of men and their voracious appetite for violence and bloodshed have pushed the moral norms to a moribund state. In that corner of the world, men are left bereft of their rights and dignity without an international backlash.

A recent research published to mark the fourth anniversary of the Syrian uprising has shown the amount of light being released over the country has shrunk by 83 per cent. Satellite imagery taken at night was used to chart the progress of the war by researchers at Wuhan University in China.

They show the glow from major population centers like Aleppo and Homs gradually dim. Aleppo, which has been divided between pro- and anti-regime halves since July 2012, has lost 97 per cent of all its light.

As well as the fighting on the ground, rebel-held parts of Aleppo have been devastated by a major aerial barrel-bombing campaign which has havocked whole suburbs. Its biggest industrial zone has also been a battle-zone, with mainstream rebels, jihadists from Al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and regime forces controlling it by turns.

Damascus by contrast has suffered less, losing just 35 per cent of its light - a sign of the firm grip on the city centre still held by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The researchers have also found that there is a direct correlation with the number of refugees from an area and the loss of light.

“Satellite imagery is the most objective source of data showing the devastation of Syria on a national scale,” the lead researcher, Xi Li, is quoted. “Taken from 500 miles above the earth, these images help us understand the suffering and fear experienced by ordinary Syrians every day, as their country is destroyed around them.”

The research was commissioned by an alliance of non-governmental organizations to highlight the plight of civilians as the war rages around them.

More than 200,000 people have been killed during the war, and more than 3.5 million people have fled the country. Including those displaced internally, half the pre-war populations of 22 million are refugees.

“Syria’s people have been plunged into the dark: destitute, fearful, and grieving for the friends they have lost and the country they once knew,” said David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary who is now president of the International Rescue Committee.

“Four years since the crisis began, there is at present very little light in this tunnel.”

It is beyond doubt that an inordinate number of radical groups are involved in Syria’s war. To be frank, Syria has been changed into a political ground and pro- and-anti-Syrian powers muddy the water for ulterior motives before the international eye. It is believed that the political hands behind the smoke screen have prolonged the war in Syria. A wise mind will hardly believe that a group of ragtag militants will resist so long against the strategically equipped regime.

Initially, there was a human reason behind the outbreak of Syria’s war. Syrians raised their voice against the Asad’s regime – which lacks legitimacy on the grounds of being undemocratic. They resorted to arm as a last recourse for gaining freedom and resisting against iniquity ruled their homelands. The significant landmark of Arab Spring was the requisite motive for this war. However, the moral objective of war has been soon diverted from its main path. The political opportunists and al-Qaeda networks engaged in the conflagration to pursue their sinister aims. As a result, under the veneer of jihad, the reputation of modest women and girls have been besmirched, children were massacred in the worst possible way without a tinge of mercy and men were riddled with bullet. The tearful eyes of mothers, saddened by the death of their beloved children, were given cold shoulder and the teenage girls beseeching for the safety of their modesty were lampooned. The so-called jihadists declaimed on streets like inebriated individuals, who imbibe to satiety, for brining the unmarried girls for Jihad-e Nikah.

The sacrilegious acts of so-called jihadists hurt the feelings of the entire Islamic world. The evil objective of the militants was veiled in virtue. Being steeped in satiating their sinister desires, the militants violated the rights and dignity of the innocent civilians. Currently, the al-Qaeda, the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and many other terrorist groups, fighting in Syria, are a vehicle for unknown political powers. The only pleasure they get is breaking religious and moral taboos, satiating their appetite for blood and trampling upon the human rights with impunity – this must have outraged the conscience of the world.

Since the Syrian militants break the international law via carnage and genocide, the international community has to interfere in the war directly so as to stop the catastrophe and prosecute the perpetrators. The war must be ceased, in one way or another, to prevent from further bloodshed.