Interior Ministry orders to step up schools’ security across Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Interior Ministry on Wednesday directed police and Rangers to step up security at schools and educational institutions across Pakistan, one week after armed militants stormed Bacha Khan University in Charsadda and killed at least 21 people, mostly students.

The move came shortly after an official statement announced that All Army Public Schools and schools working under the Federal Garrison Board across the country will remain closed until January 31.

Shortly afterwards, it was announced that all schools run by the Bahria Foundation will also remain closed until the end of the month.

The statement, however, did not specify any reason behind the sudden closure of the schools.

The move comes a day after the Punjab government ordered schools shut for five days, telling 22.5 million students to stay at home — not due to security fears but because of extreme cold weather.

The closure comes a week after gunmen carried out a deadly terrorist attack on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, raising speculation that the schools may have been closed due to security fears.

Over 21 people, including students, a professor, security guard and policemen, were martyred and several injured in the brazen attack on the varsity in Charsadda last Wednesday, a year after the Taliban militants massacred over 140 people – most of them students – at the Army Public School in Peshawar.

But the Punjab government insisted that the schools were ordered shut across the province due to cold weather and not because of security fears.

Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan told the media on Tuesday that a large number of children were catching flu and pneumonia as temperatures fell to as low as four degrees Celsius (39.2°F) in the provincial capital, Lahore, and a severe shortage of gas left schools unable to heat themselves.

"Two days ago, parents complained about the harshness of weather and diseases to children," Khan told news agency Reuters.

"The meteorological office, too, told the government that the wave of extreme cold would continue for another three to four days. We took all stakeholders in confidence and made the decision to announce holidays."

The minister denied that the province's more than 100,000 government and private schools were shut because of militant threats, despite recent warnings that militants were planning to attack educational institutions.

The deadly assault by Pakistani Taliban gunmen on the Bacha Khan University last week has heightened concerns about threats to schools and colleges.

Schools in the northwest had closed the previous weekend, before the raid, after warnings of an attack.

Punjab had shut its schools for two months after the brutal Taliban attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014.

Northern Pakistan's winter can be particularly tough as the country's chronic shortage of energy often leaves homes and schools without electricity and gas.