“I have children the same age as those who were killed in last year’s attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar,” says Tanveer Ahmed, a father of four, as he tells Pakistan Today that the incident continues to haunt him even a year after the barbaric attack.
“I cannot get the thoughts of those children out of my head,” he said, adding that he still fears of his children’s security when they go to school every day.
The schools have employed security personnel from private companies after the incident besides adopting other preventive measures but still many parents believe that the government has failed in allaying the sense of insecurity from people’s minds.
Following the Dec 16, 2014, dastardly attack, the government issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) for schools, colleges and other educational institutes throughout the country to ensure that an incident like that is never repeated in the country.
During a survey of the security situation of educational institutes in Lahore, it was revealed that in many places, the government initiative seems to have lost steam.
Ashfaq Ali, a lecturer at Government MAO College told Pakistan Today that the bitter memories of APS attack cannot be forgotten.
He said that security arrangements in MAO College are satisfactory and a police picket has been erected near the college. “The real protection lies in the hands of the Almighty and man can only try within his available resources,” he said.
A lecturer in Government Islamia College Civil Lines Lahore said that there are only four security guards in the college for the protection of 9,000 students. He said that there was neither a walkthrough gate nor CCTV camera installed at the college despite the fact that the institution was situated near the offices of senior police officials. He said that the security guards of the college do not have any weapons to deal with any untoward incident.
An interesting thread in analysing the security situation of educational institutions is that the government is profiling the institutions to decide upon the threat level that they face.
An official of the Education Department told Pakistan Today that the security arrangements had been made in the institutions keeping in view the mindset of that specific institution.
“There is no strict security arrangement in Government Islamia College Civil Lines because the college is a stronghold of Islami Jamiat Taliba which is considered sympathetic towards Taliban. However, strict security arrangements have been put in place in liberal and moderate educational institutions,” he said.
Assistant Director at the Directorate of Colleges Lahore Shujaur Rehman Dogar who supervised a rigorous campaign to ensure strict security measures in the aftermath of Peshawar attack told Pakistan Today that there are three categories of colleges as per the security arrangements.
“The institutions have been divided in A+, A and B, categories based on their location and other criteria. There are 10 colleges in A+, 25 in A and 65 in B categories in the entire Lahore division. Moreover, 16 private colleges are also included in the A+ category,” Dogar said, adding that all the SOPs issued by the government had been fully implemented in these colleges.
He said that the security guards had been hired after clearance from Intelligence Bureau (IB) and their special training programmes were organised with the help of Pakistan Army. “Committees comprising principals of government colleges were formed to inspect the private colleges to ensure that strict security arrangements are in place,” he said.
Spokesmen for Government College University (GCU) Lahore Mussadiq Sultan and Punjab University’s Khurram Shehzad said that there were strict security measures in place in their respective institutions.
They said that boundary walls had been raised and barbed wires erected at their campuses. They said that their guards were either retired army personnel or they had received training from the army to ensure that they are capable of dealing with any untoward incident.
Schools:
While colleges and universities may be better placed to hire security guards and put significant security arrangements in place, situation in private schools is nothing to write home about.
Naeema Siddiqui, who teaches in “The Bridges School”, told Pakistan Today that a state of fear still prevails among her students despite the security arrangements. She was of the opinion that the security threat was high on the eve of the anniversary of Peshawar Attack.
Talking to Pakistan Today, All Pakistan Private School Association President Adeeb Jawdani said that it was the State’s responsibility to provide security to all educational institutes in the country.
He said that all the private schools had hired security guards but that they were not trained to combat the terrorists. He added that he had written a letter to CCPO to ensure security of private schools. “We want police officials deputed in our schools to avoid any terror-related incident at the time of opening and closing of schools,” he said.
