Schooling sans security?

Published February 14, 2016

Perception wars

by Irfan Haider

A watchman holding a gun guards the main gate of a government primary school in Sardar Garhi area of Peshawar.
A watchman holding a gun guards the main gate of a government primary school in Sardar Garhi area of Peshawar.

Manipulation of information is a deadly tool in modern warfare —where there is an information gap, it is near impossible to distinguish between reality and propaganda


In a 48-hour news cycle starting on January 27, 2016, the country was nearly brought to a standstill by a baseless rumour and much conjecture: military-run schools in Punjab and Sindh were shutting down for a couple of days while civilian schools had no such directive.

Many claimed that military-run schools had been shut due to a terror threat; others believed it was some other reason. But for the next 48 hours, much of urban Pakistan sat in apprehension of what was going to happen.

In any long, protracted war, control over information becomes a deadly weapon. Information can either be used to inform the general populace or to mislead it entirely; it can be used to correctly pinpoint a potential terrorist or it can be used by terrorists to deceive any troops in pursuit of them. Information can either be used to save people or cause immense commotion.


Despite the growing need for greater security measures at educational institutions, the federal and provincial governments often shift the responsibility of securing schools on to school administrations and parents. But while the State remains absent from the picture, parents across Pakistan are becoming more fearful of sending their children to school


In this case, because there was no clarity on the precise reasons for school closure, the rumour mill went into overdrive. There was more conjecture for another day, till such time that schools reopened again and the matter finally died down.

But January 27 provided Pakistan with the perfect example of how crucial control over information is in its war against terrorism. As per procedure, all information about potential terror threats is collected and vetted by intelligence agencies, which in turn is shared with the National Crises Management Cell (NCMC), a division of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) of the Ministry of Interior.

The NCMC then issues notifications to provincial home departments, provincial chief secretaries, provincial police chiefs, and other relevant stakeholders. The home departments concerned then direct the departments concerned to stay alert and take possible measures to counter possible terrorist attack / threat.

But as the confusion on Jan 27 proved, there is a gap between the transmission of information between the Ministry of Interior and various provincial departments. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan sought to clear confusions about why schools in Punjab were shut, but that created more confusions between the Ministry of Interior and the Punjab Home Department.

On their part, government officials blame the role of social media in disseminating fraudulent information. “Sometimes, people forward unverified and untrue information on social media as if they were gospel truths,” fumes one officer. “That information is shared on multiple platforms, and all of a sudden, we have one beast of misinformation to contend with.”

Consider this message forwarded by the NCMC on January 24, 2016:

“HQ S&CT: Threat Alert-36 1. Reportedly Mangal Bagh (MB) carried out a meeting with 3 x locals commanders at the residence of an Afghan National in Jalaabad, Afghanistan to coordinate terrorist activity in Peshawar, Islamabad and Rawalpindi against military installations, schools and police stations (specially CTD Peshawar).

“9-12 x terrorist (6 x suicide bombers) have been prepared and are in the process of dispatch to Pakistan. An Afghan National has been given the responsibility of provision of weapons / ammunition along with a house at Spirsang, Warsak road, Peshawar. 2. No further details are available. Please disseminate to all concerned and ensure extra vigilance and heightened security measures at levels. Regards.”

While the text message briefly informs journalists of a looming threat, this incomplete information snippet is often forwarded as breaking news on the electronic media and updates on social media. This, in turn, creates chaos and confusion among common people.

“It is the joint responsibility of the Ministry of Interior and Nacta to share relevant information about security threats to the provincial home departments, while the chiefs of various media houses need to verify information before running it on their television channels in the form of tickers or breaking news, which causes panic among masses,” argues an official of the ministry.

“In the recent past, when Taliban threats had exponentially increased, they’d always deliver their threats through the media,” explains one senior journalist. “After a certain point, we stopped carrying their messages and the panic caused by these threats also stopped.”


“The chiefs of various media houses need to verify information before running it on their television channels in the form of tickers or breaking news, which causes panic among masses,” argues an official of the interior ministry.


Late Sunday night, February 7, 2016, two unidentified men fired at the office of City 42. Similarly, a grenade was also lobbed at the ARY News office in Sector F-7, Islamabad. These developments lead to another complication: if the messengers of news aren’t safe, is news skewed and biased to suit a particular tilt?

ARY News Bureau Chief Sabir Shakir told Dawn that the interior ministry and the district administration arranged two separate meetings with the representatives of media houses to discuss the matter of the security protocols in detail.

“It was decided in the meeting that the management of media houses will install good quality CCTV cameras at all important locations inside media offices, while owners need to hire professional security guards to counter any terrorist’s activity,” says Shakir.

“During the meeting, media representatives were asked to hire a security guard and place him on the rooftop of offices so that he may have a bird’s eye view of the canvas around him. School managements too need to ensure the use of barbed wire after increasing the boundary walls,” he argues.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Capt (R) Mushtaq Ahmad told participants of the meeting that the administration has decided to set up police posts near media officers too, while the response force will be asked to patrol localities nearby media offices in the federal capital.

According to the interior ministry source, Ch Nisar has already directed the officials concerned to issue two to three licenses for automatic weapons to each media house. These weapons will be used only in the premises of media offices and only to counter any terrorist attack.

The official also said that the minister directed the district administration to keep in touch with the local management of media houses to get updates on security threats to them as well as to individual journalists.

Meanwhile, the interior ministry has revised security protocols and procedures for educational institutions after the attack on Bacha Khan University, Charsadda (see table). A senior official of the ministry admits to the deteriorating security situation in the country, claiming that the new protocol had to be put in place based on new information and analysis.

“There are 422 government-owned schools and colleges operational in the federal capital while the ministry has installed four CCTV cameras each in 413 governments schools till now, while the boundary walls of 90pc schools and colleges are according to the standards recommended by the interior ministry,” claims Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division Secretary Khalid Hanif.

“We are in the process of introducing biometric attendance system for students, which will be installed close to entrance gates of schools and colleges at the federal level. The ministry is also working with the capital police and educational institutions on software to seek help of the police in cases of emergency,” adds the secretary.

Hanif claims that the ministry is issuing funding to government educational institutions at federal level to implement the security guidelines, while private schools’ representatives have also been directed to take all possible measures to ensure the security of students inside school premises.


“Sometimes, people forward unverified and untrue information on social media as if they were gospel truths,” fumes one officer. “That information is shared on multiple platforms, and all of a sudden, we have one beast of misinformation to contend with.”


While schools in Punjab remained shut till February 2 after the attack on Bacha Khan University, some schools asked staff to come in so that they may be trained in the basics of rescue and relief activity.

“Although government schools were closed in Rawalpindi for curricular activities, our school was open because the teaching staff of all government schools in the city was attending a security training organised by Rescue 1122 staff,” explains Musarat Rana, a 50-year-old Islamic Studies teacher at Government Girls Higher Secondary School in the Dhok Kashmirian area of Rawalpindi.

“They shared basic guidelines and standard operating procedures to adopt in case terrorists attacked our school. They also taught administering basic first aid to secure lives in emergency situations,” he described.

Rawalpindi -based Rescue official Rabnawaz Khan explained that rescue teams, along with Civil Defence department staff, are busy conducting security trainings for teachers, albeit with the support of the district police and provincial education department.

“We are sharing basic security guidelines with teachers to deal with any untoward situation, but the federal and provincial governments should issues arms licenses to schools security guards on priority basis since they are performing their duties without any weapon on them,” argues Khan.

“During security training with teachers, we asked them to share details of these security guidelines with their students,” says the Rescue 1122 official. “It is important for students to close the doors of their classrooms or halls with desks, while it is also necessary to lie flat on the ground while covering their ear with their hands.”

But Qamar Ahmed, a 44-year-old English teacher at a government college in Rawalpindi, argues that such initiatives are somewhat futile. “Although the management of educational institutions is trying to follow security guidelines devised by the interior ministry, government schools and colleges are still lacking fully equipped security guards to respond to any terror threat or attack.”

The writer is a Dawn.com multimedia correspondent in Islamabad. Connect with him on Twitter @IrfanHaiderr or email:mihader321@gmail.com

Post-Charsadda security directives

Metal detectors

All government and private educational institutions are directed to purchase metal detectors to ensure proper checking of any person entering the premises. It will be the responsibility of the heads of the institutions that they will make sure that this practice is actually carried out in true letter and spirt.

CCTV cameras

All educational institutions are also directed to install CCTV cameras. The heads will ensure that the CCTV systems are working properly and if not, should report accordingly.

Boundary wall

The existing standard of height laid down for the boundary wall is eight feet. Pakistan Public Works Department was requested to do the needful in this regard. The heads of the institutions should report whether the said task has been completed or not.

Installation of inspection mirror

All institutions are also directed to purchase inspection mirrors. The heads should report to the concerned department once the said purchases have been completed.

Concertina / Wire

The installation of concertina wire was reportedly in progress in all institutions. No report has however been received thus far from any head of the institution with regards to the completion of the said task.

Emergency Gate

Almost all the educational institutions have emergency gates. Emergency drills may be conducted regularly.

Verification of pick & drop service providers

It is the responsibility of the head of the institutions to ensure the maintenance of the complete data of pick and drop service providers including the drivers and conductors, copies of which must be submitted to the I.G. Office for security clearance.

Observation posts

All heads of the institutions should prepare observation posts at the highest points within the school premises ensuring maximum visibility. These observation posts should be manned by vigilant armed guards throughout working hours.

Trained security guards

Institutional heads are instructed to hire trained security guards as per their needs

Barriers on front gate

Barriers must be installed before the main gates of every institution.

Arms licenses

It has been decided that two or three arms licenses would be issued to each institution. The heads may send requisition for the same as per their needs for onwards submission to the Commissioner office for the issuance of the requisite arms licenses.

Miscellaneous

The heads of the institutions are further directed that the full particulars of the canteen contractors and their staff may be maintained and the copy of the ame may be sent to the I.G. office for the security clearance.

Night stay of any unauthorised individuals or visitors or canteen staff etc. is banned.

An emergency plan may be devised by the principals with the CMC for the safe exit / safety of the students and the teaching staff during an emergency situation.

Complete record is to be maintained of all visitors and the visiting hours may be curtailed. Heads and eve staff members (teaching and non-teaching) must remain vigilant in this regard. A separate person / persons may be deputed for this task and any odd movement may be reported to the concerned agencies.

Last but not least, Boy Scouts / Girls Guides and student councils representing the senior classes may be used as tools of awareness about the proper execution of emergency plans.


Peshawar: A mountain of knives

by Sadia Qasim Shah

A security personnel stands outside the ICMS School in Peshawar
A security personnel stands outside the ICMS School in Peshawar

In times of war, extraordinary expectations have been placed on smaller, privately-run schools


It felt like a deep wound had been ripped open again: on a very cold and dreary Jan 20 evening, parents of the students killed in the brutal attack on the Army Public School (APS)-Peshawar gathered again in solemn remembrance — not for their kids this time, but for the children and their young teacher, Hamid Hussain, of Bacha Khan University (BKU) in Charsadda, who had been killed earlier that morning.

“I feel as if my Saifullah and Noorullah have died again today,” says a teary-eyed mother who lost her two young sons on Dec 16, 2014. “Parents need to stand up and ask the government when all this bloodshed will stop. Is our children’s blood so valueless? More children should not be killed.”

Having suffered a tragedy together, the parents of slain APS children have become a little community of their own.

Their pain is plain for all, but only they can truly empathise with each other, and only they understand how difficult it has been to pick the pieces up. But late evening on Jan 20, they returned for a vigil at Amn Chowk for victims of the BKU attack — after all, they understood the pain of losing a child to terrorism better than anyone else.

Most felt that their sense of loss had been deepened; almost all felt great anguish at how more parents had been failed by the government. The APS parents’ slogan was clear: the government needed to protect children at educational institutions, of which it wasn’t doing a very job till now.

After the APS attack, law enforcement in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had encouraged teachers to get guns — in the event of a terrorist attack on their school, teachers would be able to protect themselves and their students. Or so went the argument. Lessons on how to use guns were also organised for teachers at Police Lines in an attempt to facilitate this new job description.

But the morning of Jan 20 proved the folly of this strategy: Hamid Hussain, it is said, had shot at the terrorists. Yet, neither did he survive nor did his students.

After Charsadda, as the TTP hurled threats of targeting more educational institutions, panic grew far and wide, reminiscent of the kind witnessed after the attack on APS. Once again, most people seem to be talking about guns, certainly more so than they are about books. Irrespective of whether the TTP intended to attack or not, they managed to strike a permanent fear of a looming attack among law-enforcement agencies, parents, and the administrations of educational institutions.

Schools had come under instructions to improve security measures after the attack on APS-Peshawar, but over time, the nature of the debate has changed. From their new role of delaying any attackers till help arrived, schools were now expected to assume all responsibility for security.

Any negligence could be prosecuted, and that has proven to be the case: more than 700 FIRs have been registered against school owners for not making adequate security arrangements at their institutions.

In the case of BKU, too, the vice-chancellor was deemed responsible for lax security. The irony was that the district police officer responsible for Charsadda was the one conducting the inquiry. With the Peshawar police spending more time registering and pursing FIRs than inspiring confidence, small private schools, which work in every nook and corner of the province, are now feeling the heat.

“The government has tied our hands, by not equipping us with automatic machine guns or even issuing arms licenses to us. Simultaneously, it is also telling us to fight terrorists on our own,” says Ans Kareem, owner of a private school in Peshawar.

Kareen complains that the police had so far been causing more harassment than inspiring confidence among schools. “The police have been registering FIRs against school owners but not issuing them NOCs for arms possession,” he says.

“They are confused about the list of security measures to be adopted but are never satisfied with on-site measures. They expect all big and small schools to have the same security arrangements even though not all schools can afford the recommended precautions,” argues Kareen.

Zar Ali is the owner of one such school in the suburbs of Peshawar. “I have a small school on Kohat road. It is situated amid fields. I know it is not safe there, but what are you supposed to do with one guard who is only allowed to have a 20-bore gun?” says Ali. “The government expects school owners to engage terrorists for some time before the police arrive, but how long can one fight with a 20-bore gun?”

“I have a small school in Qamar Garhi, close to the border of tribal areas. I charge Rs500 in tuition fees; how can I possibly meet the costs of security, teachers’ salaries, as well as rent of the building from our meagre earnings?” argues Shehzad Ali. “The number of students has dropped after BKU attack. There is fear among kids but it is more to do with how government tells schools to stay close for days no matter where the attack takes place.”

He believes that “too much attention” on security measures has resulted in students’ education suffering through this time. He says that security concerns have made children feel more insecure in schools, forcing them to drop out.

“The police should stop harassing owners of private schools; we are small in number and have been working in rented buildings,” Ali says of the FIR drive.

“Police officials rightly say that there are some 60,000 educational institutions in the province and it is impossible for them to secure each and every one of them. But private school owners and parents also have the right to complain about how the police is holding them responsible for complete and comprehensive schools security arrangements,” argues Ali.

There is some merit in what the Qamar Garhi school owner says: although policing is a collective effort, schools are declared soft targets for terrorists. In fact, many Peshawar educationists fear that the BKU attack seems to be just the beginning of TTP’s war on educational institutions — shortly after the BKU attack, TTP commander Umar Mansoor, in a video, unequivocally conveyed his intent to do so. These are not times for collective policing; rather, it is one for law enforcement to take charge of.

The security of each and every citizen is the paramount responsibility of the State. The National Action Plan (NAP) was formulated to provide greater and more effective security cover for citizens against terrorism in all forms. There are stipulations in various laws, including the Anti-Terrorism Act, that enable law enforcement agencies to foil and arrest elements that pose a danger to school children or a locality.

And yet, terrorists manage to strike at their own sweet will, at a time and location of their choosing. It is high time for those responsible in government for security affairs to embrace responsibility, and gather the support of parents and the larger community instead of scaring them further by putting the burden of security squarely on their shoulders.

By comparison, shortly after Charsadda, universities in KP demanded of the federal and provincial governments to deploy the Frontier Constabulary at the campuses. This claim was made despite many redoubling their security arrangements and efforts; indeed many felt that the threat level had gone up a notch.

All the 19 public sector universities of the province, in an emergency meeting of all vice-chancellors summoned soon after the BKU attack, ended up calling for more funds for their respective institutions’ security as the current number of security staff was not adequate and greater measures were needed to secure their campuses. Most of these universities were set up just a few years ago by the previous Awami National Party (ANP)-led government and had campuses in villages which were not very well secure.

After the APS attack, the federal government had announced Rs2.5 billion for the security of public sector universities. Of this amount, Rs1bn was to be granted to the University of Peshawar (UoP) alone, for being the oldest varsity with a huge campus. But a well-placed official of the UoP claimed that not a single penny of that amount had been received by the UoP till now.

“I thought I would upgrade the library and arrange other IT facilities for students, but now, with the funds available, we bought CCTV cameras and other security related gadgetry instead,” says Prof. Fayyazur Rehman, principal of the Law College, UoP.

Indeed, security over education is the order of the day.


Karachi: Fear of the unknown

by Manal Khan

Students being trained by police on use of firearms at the Razzaqabad Training Centre
Students being trained by police on use of firearms at the Razzaqabad Training Centre

Another security dilemma unfolds in the City of Lights


On most days, young Asad*, a fifth grade student, comes home with some innocuous tales to tell his mother. One day, he told a tale that left his mother worried and aghast in equal measure: “We were playing hide and seek and in a quest of hiding from my friends, I found a room full of all the ammunition that I use in my video game! I got to see grenades and AK-47s for real, mama! Maybe they are storing it for times of need?”

Fiza*, Asad’s mother, could not believe what she had heard but she confirmed the news with school staff. It turned out that Asad was not telling any lies. “I am not comfortable with the thought of so much weaponry existing in the same building as my child! How can a mother ever be at peace in Karachi?” she says.

Asad’s school is among the few in the town that seem to take security concerns seriously. Notwithstanding a not-so-concealed weapons cache, security drills take place every other week. “We don’t feel unusual about it. It is just something that has been happening for a year now,” explains Asad.

On Feb 1, 2016, 180 private schools in Karachi were declared sensitive by the Sindh High Court (SHC), and for good reason too. In the past year, on Feb 15, there was a grenade attack outside the Beacon Light Academy in Gulshan Block 7, which caused parents to panic when they came to drop their child off, early in the morning. A month later, Baldia Town School explosion took the innocent lives of six students and their principal.

Though these attacks have been in lower-middle- and upper-middle-class localities, schools in more affluent areas seemed to have cordoned off their gates more heavily. Many have increased the height of their boundary walls, installed barbed wire around them, enhanced the number of guards around the building, but what remains is the constant reminder of danger.

“Our school has always had more than the usual number of security guards. It’s not about the threats to the school basically, but more to the children belonging to political families who study here,” explains a recent Southshore graduate.

On Wednesday, Jan 27, schools run by military administration in Karachi as well as some others in the Defence Housing Authority area announced a two-day closure (Thursday and Friday). This sparked a frenzy as the rumour mill went into overdrive and social media reported a security threat to schools. School attendance remained thin the next day.

As a parent, Zain* understands the position parents find themselves in: the fear of something untoward happening to his children while they are at school is crippling. But in his day job, an administrator of a school, he knows that the choices he is preaching to other parents might not be the same as the ones he’d make for his children.

“How helpless am I as a parent when my children are not even safe at school?” Zain wonders aloud, before stating that many other parents are in the same boat, ploughing on despite security threats on a daily basis. “I try not to panic about it. But then I also feel fortunate that my kids go to a private school and the private security company hired by the school is headed by a retired army officer.”

Naqvi Ali, father of two boys, both studying at the Bai Virbaiji Soparivala (BVS) Parsi High School in Saddar, argues that having arms for peace is never going to be enough. “The feeling of being safe doesn’t ever come from having the police out on the roads, it comes from inside.”

Although BVS has taken all government-advised security measures, inside the premises and outside, fear still lurks around other schools in the Saddar area. A few kilometres away from BVS, the Army Public School has maximised precautionary measures. There are fences, barbed wires and foot soldiers inside the school premises that have become a part of the daily routine check points of the students at APS.

Anushae breathes a sigh of relief, as her younger sister is about to graduate from APS. “We considered sending her to another school, but my father is an army officer, who believes nothing can come in the way of education. People in our circle are aware of the risks but what I’ve seen more than fear is resilience.”

“There are times when parents don’t send their children to schools,” says Fariha*, a private school teacher. “We talk to them as teachers and caretakers of their children within the school premises, and try to ease them of their concerns. We can only offer the preliminary armour, who’s to say what’s next?”

But ultimately, while schools can adopt certain security measures, it is parents who’d have to decide whether sending their children to school is a risk worth taking.

Mashal Agha, who has just started sending her daughter to pre-school, chooses to stay away from the hype created by the electronic media. “If I start following the news religiously, I won’t be able to send my child to school. It just becomes more and more difficult with every passing day,” she says.

While Agha is among parents desperately trying to shield their children from terrorism talk, the reality inside the schools is less sanitised.

Al Murtaza teacher, Fatima*, expresses her astonishment about the recent topics of discussion among her students. “Schoolchildren nowadays can easily talk about bombs and killings; they often refer to it in their examples for explaining daily life scenarios, which is quite unnerving!” she says.

Another private school principal, Gulzar*, feels somewhat the same. “Just the other day, a student came to my office asking about the number of holidays they would be getting in order to stay safe. He had seen something traumatising on TV the previous night,” he says.

Names changed to protect privacy. The writer tweets @manalkhan07


Lahore: Lonesome battle

by Irfan Aslam

Children peep through the iron grill installed at a school as part of fresh security measures on the first day after an extended winter break
Children peep through the iron grill installed at a school as part of fresh security measures on the first day after an extended winter break

Staff increments in some schools take a hit after institutes redirect funds towards private security


It was almost midnight on January 25, 2016, when the Punjab government announced keeping schools shut until the 31st on the pretext of cold weather. Most parents smelled a rat as winters were rapidly waning in most of the province. And soon, the cat was out of the bag too: schools had been shut due to a terror threat, coming on the heels of the attack on Bacha Khan University, Charsadda.

“Of course we believed that schools were being shut down due to cold and everything being broadcast on the media about the security issue was just a rumour,” says Pariwash, a resident of Multan Road, who sends her three children to the Lahore School. ““However, it later became clear that security was in fact the real issue and it was obviously a matter of great concern for any parent.”

Indeed, many parents across Lahore swung between panic and apprehension, between fear and what needs to be done to secure schools and guarantee their children’s safety.

“We demanded that the police set up patrol during school hours in areas where a number of schools were operating in close proximity,” says Faisal Khalid Sheikh, president of the Private Schools Parents Association Punjab (PSPAP), a representative body of schoolchildren’s parents in Lahore.

“Provision of security is the government’s responsibility but during a meeting with the parents’ association, the Lahore capital city police officer (CCPO) said that the police could not ensure security at each and every school of the city,” claims Sheikh, adding that the public schools don’t have even guards that the private schools can afford.

Hina, a teacher at the Beaconhouse School, says that when schools re-opened following winter vacations, many students did not show up. “Half the class remained absent for at least the next two. The same thing happened when APS-Peshawar was attacked, and now again, after the attack on Bacha Khan University, we saw a repeat.”

“Such fear compelled some parents to offer to guard the schools themselves,” says Sheikh, “particularly in cases where they felt schools and the government hadn’t done the needful.”

The PSPAP president adds that although they still have reservations regarding security measures taken by the government, but on the whole, the security situation in schools is adequate for the time being because of steps taken by the school administrations.

“They have got more guards and new weapons, and they are also complying with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) regarding security, says Sheikh, while admitting that most parents are still not satisfied with these measures due to the element of fear after the Bacha Khan University attack.

The added focus on private security among private schools has come at a cost though.

“Most schools did not raise school fees in the name of security, as school owners had pledged not to do so during a meeting with parents and Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood. But what some schools did do was to stop the annual increment of their staff, saying that they had to provide funds for increased security,” explains Sheikh.

Meanwhile, when the schools opened again after winter vacations, Pariwash made sure that the security at the school was beefed up before sending her children back.

“They put a barbed wire on the boundary walls of the school and increased the number of guards at the gate. Secondly, the school administration assured me that the attacks on educational institutes happened in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and until the PML-N was ruling Punjab, there won’t be any big terrorism issue here,” she says.

Pariwash says they had to send their children back to school in any case as they ‘could not be kept home.’

“Terrorism has been going on since long. We are also getting used to it,” she says. “Though we are more afraid for the kids but their education is also important. So we have to trust the school administration as well as government and have faith in God.”

For Hina though, there were frantic phone calls from parents and SMSs and messages on social media pages of the school who were inquiring about security measures before sending children to school.

“When the schools reopened after the ‘vacations’, parents were unwilling to send their children to school. They said they would like to see the security arrangements themselves before they sent their kids back to school,” she says. “But these were those parents who are well-informed and take some interest in the news. Most parents did not know anything about the severity of the situation until the security threat to school was the talk of the town.”

The writer tweets @IrfaanAslam

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, February 14th, 2016

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