School managements can get gun permits

Karachi
The Sindh government has decided to award gun licences to private school managements within a week, if they so desired, as part of beefed-up security measures for schools and their staff across the province.
This was announced by Sindh Home Secretary Dr Niaz Ali Abbasi in a press conference on Tuesday after a meeting held to finalise security arrangements being made for private and government schools in the province, in the wake of Peshawar tragedy.
Abbasi said school managements had been directed to immediately devise and adopt their own security plans and implement them fully from January 12 after academic activities resume at the end of winter vacation.
He said the managements of private schools had also been asked to hire two to four security guards at their campuses and the authorities will entertain no “lame excuses” for not doing so. The private schools, he said, charged hefty fees from students and they should take steps to ensure the security of their students.
He said special security measures should also be adopted for vehicles being used for picking up and dropping students and school staff home, since terrorists could target them with magnetic detonators.
He said that school managements had already been asked to complete the necessary fencing, install closed-circuit television cameras and move their parking areas away from campuses. Moreover, they also have to submit details of the times of arrival and departure of school students and staff to the police station concerned and area SSP and office of the deputy commissioner.
He said educational institutions having no boundary walls should immediately start construction while measures should also be taken to differentiate school timings for junior and senior classes.
Abbasi said the government would soon table legislation in the Sindh Assembly to make it legally binding for new tenants or buyers of property in a certain area to get registered at the local police station.
Meanwhile, he added, a high-level meeting will be held on January 8 to decide other major steps pertaining to the security and law and order situation of the province. The meeting will also be attended by Corps Commander Sindh, Sindh Rangers’ Director-General and Sindh IG.

Execution of terrorists
At the end of the press conference, Abbasi also announced that arrangements for the executing six terrorism convicts in the province had also been finalised. He said the convicts would be hanged on January 13, 14 and 15 at the central prisons of Karachi and Sukkur.