Home Latest News Peshawar Schools to Reopen Jan. 12

Peshawar Schools to Reopen Jan. 12

by AFP
Laborers rebuild the boundary wall of the Army Public School. A. Majeed—AFP

Laborers rebuild the boundary wall of the Army Public School. A. Majeed—AFP

All schools in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital have been closed since Dec. 16, when Taliban attacked the Army Public School.

Schools in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province will reopen on Monday, an official said, after an extended break following a brutal Taliban assault that killed 150 people, the country’s deadliest-ever attack.

Provincial Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani said that “all the necessary security measures” have been taken for 35,000 educational institutions, including schools, colleges and universities to reopen on Jan. 12.

The government had announced a winter vacation due to security threats after the deadly attack on the military-run school in Peshawar killed 150 people, including 134 children.

Ghani also said the authorities would build walls around government-run education institutions which would extend at least eight feet high, and would also introduce community policing systems whereby civilians with experience operating weapons would be trained and paid to guard educational facilities.

Private schools, colleges and universities have meanwhile been issued strict guidelines with requirements including having guards, Ghani said, adding that schools’ licenses could be revoked if they did not follow the rules.

In response to the Taliban attack, Parliament last week passed a constitutional amendment approving the establishment of military courts to hear terrorism-related cases.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also lifted the country’s six-year-old moratorium on the use of the death penalty, reinstating it for terror cases in the wake of the slaughter at the school.

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1 comment

Raazia Syed January 12, 2015 - 11:37 am

it is awful that now in our country the lives of onnocent children are not safe , schools , and educational institutes are only place of seeking knowledge not for death , not for terriorim , if our army and political goverment is on one and same page why we see terriorism , deaths , bloodshed, and other social evils in our country , it just means that our so called political government is not committed to overcome terriorism , its very easy to annouce grant for the vicitms but very difficult to bear the sorrow of dear ones ………………….

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