KARACHI, April 6: With security fears looming large across the city, more than 300,000 students will take secondary school certificate (SSC) annual exams from Monday amid what security officials, school owners and the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) management described as the most volatile circumstances in the history of Karachi.

Although the BSEK declared 50 of the 223 examination centres across the city “sensitive” for security reasons, the security officials and school owners believed that number of such areas was even higher.

Only last Saturday a gun-and-grenade attack on a private school in Baldia Town left its principal and a girl dead and a few other children wounded.

“Police and Rangers will be deployed at almost every centre,” said Noman Ahsan, BSEK examination controller.

“For sensitive centres, a special security plan has been devised. Three constables led by an assistant sub-inspector will be deployed at every centre, while Rangers personnel will also be there.”

Referring to recent rulings of the Supreme Court regarding “no-go areas in Karachi”, he said arrangements for 317,407 candidates in “vulnerable security atmosphere” in 2013 had emerged as the toughest challenge in recent years.

“Everyone is aware of the security situation in Karachi but we are making every possible move to keep the process peaceful with all due security arrangements in place. The Karachi commissioner, deputy commissioners of all districts and senior police officials have been taken on board in this regard,” said Mr Ahsan.While the BSEK authorities have kept the process smooth to a large extent, owners of a few private schools and management of some government schools were found wary of the security situation.

A government school in Shershah said it was not able to follow BSEK directives and finally managed to convince the authorities to shift the examination centre of nearly 400 students from its place to another. The school owners counted that a number of such places still existed in different towns but expressed the hope that steps being taken this year could help meet the challenge.

“The situation this year is worse than the past,” said Private Schools Management Association’s Khalid Shah, who is also a member of the BSEK-formed vigilance committee to review arrangements, including security measures, at examination centres.“None of the five districts you can say is clear and ideal in terms of the security situation. But like extraordinary situation, extraordinary steps have also been taken. Yet their effectiveness will be proven on Monday when the exam begins.”

Apart from neighbourhoods in the district south and west, he referred to parts of Landhi and Korangi as a few of several other vulnerable areas in the city. Mr Shah, however, sounded hopeful that with engagement of law-enforcement agencies and civic administration, the BSEK would be able to execute the job successfully.

The police authorities, though not worried about the level of threat, found it hard to manage the security of examination centres amid an election campaign by different political parties, which they said was likely to gather momentum within a week.

“It’s probably the first time in the history of Karachi that the law-enforcement agencies are being involved to such an extent in the holding of school exams,” said a senior police official requesting anonymity.

“The police are already under severe strain due to the overall law and order situation and the Supreme Court orders require round the clock efforts on these lines. So managing several tasks at a time with the available force is a very tough job.”