PESHAWAR: Many local educational institutions both government and private have yet to carry out the police’s security guidelines in disregard for the government’s clear instructions.

During a visit to various schools in Nawa Kili, Bara Gate, Bara Road, Gulberg, Umeedabad and Landi Arbab areas on Wednesday, Dawn found strict security checks to be missing.

Some private schools located on Bara Road kept the main gate closed but the government schools were in need of security arrangements.

Some of them had raised the height of main gates by welding iron pieces but walls didn’t have razor wire. Also, watchmen didn’t possess weapons.

“I have kept my pistol with myself but the government has not given us any weapons so far,” a watchman at Government Girls Primary-cum-High School Naudhia Payan told Dawn.

A headmaster of Government Boys Primary-cum-Middle School Naudhia Payan School said schools had already spent the welfare funds on different work last year and that they had no resources to purchase weapons for guards or to purchase barbed wire. He suggested the provision of special funds for the purchase of security material, construction of boundary walls and purchase of weapons.

However, very few schools had given shotguns of an old model watchmen manning the main gate.

“I have no licence but I have brought the rifle on emergency basis,” a watchman holding a gun said.

A female teacher of the Government Girls Higher Secondary School Cantonment-II said the school administration had placed cemented blocks outside the main gate of the premises but still students were scared and many of them didn’t attend classes regularly.

Strict security checks absent; shortage of funds blamed

She said teachers were trying their best to finish the course in few days, while first and second year students were asked to prepare for examinations at home and avoid coming to the school for fear of attack. The police didn’t patrol the areas.

A few teachers said police vans were seen outside the schools in the morning but security plan had yet to be handed over to them.

A police official distributing the security plan in writing in the cantonment area said they had asked heads of the schools to place cemented blocks at main gates, stretch barbed wire, and keep the gates closed.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani on Wednesday visited various educational institutions in the city and gave necessary instructions for taking security measures to counter possible acts of terrorism.

Accompanied by CCPO Ijaz Khan Mohmand and SSP Peshawar Dr Mian Saeed, the police chief reviewed security arrangements of schools and colleges, especially in the wake of the militant attack on Army Public School Peshawar on Dec 16.

During the visit to Government High School for Boys-II Peshawar, Durrani inspected security arrangements. The principal of the school briefed him on the security arrangements made in light of the police’s guidelines.

The police chief went to classrooms and interacted with students and teachers.

He later visited Frontier Women College Peshawar and examined security arrangements there. He also spoke students and teachers there.

Durrani praised students and teachers for their resilience and resolve.

He briefed them about the launch of an SOS Alert Service for educational institutions.

The police chief asked the CCPO to arrange arms and tactics training for schoolchildren and teachers in Police Lines Peshawar.

He urged students and teachers to keep a close watch on the surroundings of schools and houses and instantly inform the police in case of any suspicious activity.

Published in Dawn January 15th , 2015

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