Peshawar: Four years after terror attack
FOUR YEARS AFTER SCHOOL ATTACK, POLICE ARE BETTER PREPARED
As Pakistanis paid tribute to the 147 people killed in the terror attack in Peshawar in 2014, the fourth anniversary brought fresh pain for the grieving parents. A total of 132 children died in the attack on the Army Public School (APS).
“Time does not take away the pain,” said Shahab Uddin, who lost his only son, 15-year-old Mohammad Ali Khan, in the attack.
“Every year in December [anniversary of attack] we feel somehow it will be easier this year, but it is not,” Shahab told Gulf News. “All we have of Ali now is memories of him and his unforgettable laughter.”
Police better prepared
Four years on, the APS school attack offers the nation a chance to reflect on the hardest lessons learnt and security measures taken.
Although Pakistan has since witnessed more brazen attacks on educational institutes — such as the 2016 assault on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, which killed 20 — police officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province are now confident about their level of preparedness.
Senior Superintendent of Police Operations, Javed Iqbal, said police in the province had launched several measures, “including mobile alert systems, security cameras and armed security guards at all schools.”
“[We have also asked officials to] ensure compliance with regulations such as [installing] boundary walls, barbed wire and emergency exits at schools and holding regular mock exercises to check the preparedness of the force,” Ibal said.
Police have been conducting daily search and strike operations in different districts of the province, recovering caches of arms and ammunition. In 2014, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police launched a one-click SOS alert service for sensitive and vulnerable organisations including all schools, to enable them to alert police about any emergency within seconds.
National Action Plan
Although Pakistan’s massive military action against militants was launched in North Waziristan in June 2014, the school attack proved to be the catalyst for the National Action Plan (NAP) by civil and military leadership to curb terrorism.
Under the NAP, the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted for convicted terrorists and military courts were set up.
Several points were agreed in the NAP deal, including action on banned outfits and moves to choke their funding sources.
It also included counterterrorism steps such as strengthening the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), establishing a dedicated counterterrorism force, as well as regulation of religious seminaries.
[We have also asked officials to] ensure compliance with regulations such as [installing] boundary walls, barbed wire and emergency exits at schools and holding regular mock exercises.”
Javed Iqbal | Senior Superintendent of Police
School safety framework
In a bid to make schools resilient, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued the Pakistan School Safety Framework (PSSF) project in 2017 under which 1,500 teachers and 400,000 schoolchildren would be trained.
The framework offers policy guidance for school safety to assess potential risks and prepare for natural hazards (such as earthquakes, floods) and manmade hazards (such as fires, bomb threats).
Investments in security
In the wake of the APS massacre, the KP government announced a series of steps such as boundary walls over two metres high, barbed wire fences and the installation of CCTV cameras.
Police have taken action in nearly 4,000 cases of schools that failed to tighten security measures, according to SSP Javed.
Missing walls
While the safety situation in KP appears to be improving, other provinces seem to be lagging. Statistics prepared by Alif Ailan, an education advocacy organisation in Pakistan, indicate that 43 per cent of government schools are in poor condition and lack basic facilities such as furniture, bathrooms, boundary walls, electricity and running water.
Nearly 31,000 schools out of 150,000 surveyed all over the country did not have a proper boundary wall, which is seen as important due to the security situation.
Call for better security and infrastructure
According to the Global Terrorism Database, there were 867 attacks on educational institutions in Pakistan from 2007 to 2015, resulting in 392 deaths and 724 injuries.
To make schools safer, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Pakistan government to develop a comprehensive policy for protecting students, in addition to fairly prosecuting those responsible for attacks against students, teachers and schools.