SWABI: The University of Swabi students have demanded the early reopening of their campus.

The university has been closed for security reasons since the militants massacred students and staff members at the Army Public School Peshawar on Dec 16 last year.

The students told Dawn on Friday that the closure of the university for over seven weeks had adversely affected their studies.

They said it was the responsibility of the university’s management to put in place strict security checks on the campus to ensure its early reopening.

“The district security measurement committee has formulated security guidelines not for our university only. Instead, they’re being followed by other local educational institutions, too,” a student said.

He said he failed to understand if other educational institutions could follow security guidelines, then why his university had failed to follow suit.

The student said the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University’s Mian Dheri campus and the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology had resumed classes after adhering to security guidelines suggested by the district security measurement committee.

Other students said they’re struggling to finish their respective courses and prepare for the imminent examinations due to the prolonged closure of the university.

They said any further delay in the reopening of the campus could cause irreparable damage to their studies.

The students said they had contacted the university’s management many times to know about the resumption of classes but got unsatisfactory replies.

A member of the university staff said he expected that the campus would reopen on next Tuesday or Wednesday.

He, however, said the decision on the resumption of classes would be taken by the district security measurement committee, which was to visit the premises on Monday.

When contacted, security officer of the university Zeeshan Khan said the recommended security checks would be in place in the next two days.

“We hope that this time around, we will get the non-objection certificate from the committee. And once the certificate is issued, we’ll reopen the campus without delay,” he said.

The security officer said the university’s boundary wall had been made unscalable, closed-circuit television cameras had been installed all over the campus, and all key points entry and exit points had been manned by armed guards.

He said the management had hired 30 former security personnel.

Published in Dawn January 31st, 2015

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