KARACHI: Another private school in the city came under a grenade attack on Wednesday morning, triggering fear and panic among parents and the school administration.

The grenade hurled by some motorcyclists at Beaconhouse School System, Primary III (playgroup to class V), in North Nazimabad’s Block-B, exploded at the boundary wall near its main gate.

The attackers also dropped a pamphlet there, warning the authorities that if the killing of militants in encounters, their execution and repatriation of Afghan refugees were not stopped, they would continue to target schools, non-Muslim communities and law enforcement agencies.

The school administration immediately after the attack, which was carried out at 10.45am, closed the campus as parents became panicky and rushed to take their children back home.

“The grenade attack appeared to be a move to create harassment,” said Gulberg SP Faisal Noor.

Some parents talking to the media complained that several schools in Karachi had been attacked since the Dec 16 terror attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, but the authorities had yet to ensure proper security at schools.

He said the motorcyclists could not be identified through CCTV camera footage, because they were covered by a car.

He said contingents of police and Rangers rushed to the spot after receiving information of the grenade attack on the private school. It emerged during initial investigation that two private guards and a watchman on duty at the school did not challenge the attackers at all. “The security head of the school was detained following the incident for interrogation,” the officer said.

Quoting a bomb disposal squad official, the Gulberg SP said that it was a Russian-made (RG-7) hand grenade, weighing around 200 grams.

In the same neighbourhood, the officer said, a suspected militant belonging to the banned Al-Qaeda was arrested for killing two members of the Ismaili community. Just four days after his arrest, a police mobile van of North Nazimabad DSP was targeted in a ‘cracker attack’.

The previous attacks

Earlier on Feb 3, the campuses of Beaconhouse School and City School in Gulshan-i-Iqbal were targeted with two cracker blasts despite the much-publicised detailed security arrangements at schools in the aftermath of the Peshawar school attack.

The explosions had taken place at about 6.50am when no children or teachers were there. However, it had triggered fear and panic among the parents.

In that case, too, the attackers had dropped a letter warning law enforcers and parents about more attacks if action against militants was not stopped.

But unlike earlier militant claims the letter did not carry the name of the organisation which had purportedly issued, casting doubts on its veracity, according to security analysts.

Besides, militants usually did not issue warnings in advance, they said, adding that the motive for attacking the private schools seemed spreading scare and fear.

Speaking to Dawn after the twin attacks, Karachi police chief Additional IG Ghulam Qadir Thebo said the attacks were being investigated at two levels. Firstly, he said, the incident took place a few hours after the hanging of two Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militants, indicating that it might be a reaction to their execution.

Secondly, a ‘third force’ wanted to exploit threats from militants and the letter might have been dropped for that purpose, he said.

An inquiry team, led by DIG East Munir Ahmed Shaikh, was established to probe the February attacks.

When contacted by Dawn on Wednesday, the officer said that so far no one had been arrested in the case.

However, he added, security was enhanced at the schools in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, especially during morning hours, following the cracker explosions.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2015

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