No prior information of attack received: VC

By our correspondents
January 23, 2016

Students seek proper security

CHARSADDA: Bacha Khan University Vice-Chancellor Fazl Rahim Marwat on Friday said that the varsity administration had not received any prior information about the attack.

Talking to reporters here, he said that the authorities had not provided any information about terrorist attack at the university.Taking advantage of the fog, the terrorists scaled the walls of the university and set the university bus on fire, he said.

He added that soon after the burning of the bus they shot dead the cook and started killing students and officials in the administration block and other buildings.The vice-chancellor added that the university had 56 guards and 21 among them were on duty at the time of the attack. Responding to a question about the training of the guards, he said that terrorists were more trained than the guards.

“We had planned a training programme for the guards,” he said, and rejected the idea of handing over the security of the university to security forces, saying that the army could not protect all educational institutions in the province.

He said the nation must change its mindset. He announced cash prizes for the security guards.Meanwhile, students staged protest to press the administration to hand over the university’s security to the security forces.

They demanded installation of CCTV cameras and establishing checkpoints around the campus. They also demanded dismissal of the untrained security guards.

The protesting students chanted slogans against the government. They said that the government had prior information about the attack but did not take any steps to protect the students.

They asked the government to replace the laptop scheme with a pistol scheme so that the students could protect themselves at the time of emergency.