Balochistan government has decided to establish a special force to be deployed at university campuses across the province in the aftermath of the brutal attack on the Bacha Khan University in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda town last week.
“The new force would be subservient to vice chancellors,” Akbar Hussain Durrani, Balochistan home secretary, told Dawn.com. He however said administrative powers over the force would be with police.
Durrani said 60 personnel will be deployed at each university, adding that the force will be well equipped.
The decision comes in the aftermath of a terrorist attack at the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, which claimed more than 20 lives, when unidentified gunmen opened fire on students and faculty members as they gathered at the school for a poetry recital to commemorate the death anniversary of the activist and leader whom the school is named after.
This was the second major attack on an education institution after terrorists massacred 144 people at a Peshawar school in Dec 2014 – the most brutal act of terror in the country’s history.
Both, the Peshawar school massacre and the Bacha Khan University attack, were claimed by Umar Mansoor of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Geedar group.
Security in and around all university campuses in Balochistan had already been tightened after last week’s attack in Charsadda to avert any untoward incident.
Following the attack on the Charsadda varsity last week, security arrangements at universities and colleges have been upgraded all across the country.
The Punjab government also issued orders for foolproof security arrangements in public, private, missionary, armed forces, multinational schools, colleges and universities.
In a circular issued last week, it has been stated that educational institutions will not be allowed to work in case of unsatisfactory security arrangements.
Meanwhile, teachers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – where both school attacks took place – have been allowed to bear arms and were imparted training to use firearms after the Peshawar Army Public School attack.
