ISLAMABAD: Law enforcement agencies have identified 1,159 educational institutions in the Pakistani capital as soft targets for terrorists, the media reported yesterday.
This follows a terrorist massacre of students and teachers at a Peshawar school on December 16.
A police officer said there were 1,137 private and government schools and colleges as well as 22 universities in the city, Dawn online reported. He said there were 77 markets and 14 hospitals which were also considered soft targets for terrorists.
The officer said his men were already bogged down by different assignments while many were deployed to protect high ranking officials. In some schools, guards have been deployed. But now it has been made mandatory for all institutions to hire armed security personnel.
The administrations will be asked to install CCTV cameras for surveillance of the buildings, the report said. The height of the boundary walls of all schools, colleges and universities should be raised and barbed wires fixed, the officer said.
The digging of trenches was also proposed around school buildings. The officer said schools should also carry out evacuation drills.
The officer said there were intelligence reports that suicide jackets and bombers had been moved towards Punjab, especially Rawalpindi and Islamabad, by Taliban militants. He said the terrorists might target school or college vehicles with an improvised explosive device.
The authorities are taking all possible measures to stop educational institutions from becoming targets of militant attacks.
The superintendents of police of all the four zones in Islamabad — City, Saddar, Rural and Industrial Area — have been asked to hold meetings with the school administrations in their respective areas and brief them on the security arrangements.
Walk-through gates should also be installed at the entry points of the schools and guards should be deployed with metal detectors. The educational institutions have also been asked to arrange reflectors to check vehicles for magnetic explosive devices.
Police officers and station house officers concerned have been asked to ensure that each educational institution had implemented the standard operating procedure. As of now, winter vacations have started in the schools and majority of the universities.
Meanwhile, a three lakh-strong volunteer force will be formed to provide security at educational institutions across Punjab province in Pakistan. A large number of volunteers were being gathered to counter the threat stemming from terrorism at education institutions, The News International reported citing Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashood.
Mashood further said a meeting of the administrations of education institutions has been called for today. He added that the entire nation had stood up against terrorism and the government was not solely responsible for countering this menace.
“First we listened to the Taliban, then we launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb and now we all need to be on the same page,” Mashood said. Pakistan has ramped up its anti-terror strategy since the attack on an army-run school in Peshawar. The death toll rose yesterday to 150 including 134 children after one of the injured — a 17-year-old student — passed away in hospital.
Agencies
