Revised SOP requires schools to upgrade security

Karachi 

The South Range Police has issued a revised standing operating procedure (SOP) that requires schools to upgrade their security in the wake of the deadly terror attack on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda.

Considering the threat to educational institutions, DIG Jameel Ahmed of South Range held a meeting with heads and administrative staff of different educational institutions and discussed the revised the SOP.

Talking to The News on Thursday, he said that in the wake of the recent terror attack on the Bacha Khan University by a group of militants, it had become necessary to lay down guidelines and a procedure for preventing and dealing with terrorist attacks on schools.

The DIG said: “Our aim is to prevent terrorist attacks and provide a safe environment for students, staff and visitors.”

Moreover, he said, the identification of schools, including army, navy, Rangers, Coast Guards and police schools was well as prominent private schools, had been completed, and the police had issued a booklet to educational institutions for following the new SOP.

The revised standing operating procedure requires the schools to take the following security measures:

- Raise the concrete boundary wall from eight to 10 feet, fixe concertina wire on the two-foot angled iron grill above the boundary wall so nobody could jump over the wall, and have three gates, one of them being the emergency gate manned by three to four professional guards on a 24-hour basis;

- Install CCTV cameras along the boundary wall and inside the premises on strategic points to monitor the movement of any suspicious person. The CCTV system should have the requisite video analytics to detect any intrusion, raise an audio and visual alarm and should have recordings of at least 15 days;

- Watchtowers should be constructed along the boundary wall to retaliate effectively as an when the situation demands; 

- Cell phone and landline numbers of the SDPO and the SHO should be maintained and updated regularly, and these numbers should be displayed at prominent places so that in case of emergency, the principal, teachers, students, staff or security guards may contact the police;

- An officer must be nominated to look after the security arrangements in the school and a telephone connection provided at the main gate so that the guards can inform the police of emergency without waiting for the security officer or the principal;

- Walkthrough gates should be installed at all entry points. There should be a centralised announcement system between the security officer and classrooms, hostel, mess, library and hall of the school;

- Schools should arrange walkie-talkie sets for communication between security guards and security officers, besides an intercom connecting security at the main gate, the security officer and the principal;

- A visual anti-sabotage check of the entire school should be carried out by the security guards before the children start arriving in the morning. Moreover, the footpath in front of the school, the area along the boundary wall and the parking lot should be checked to detect any suspicious object lying unattended;

- In order to alert the security staff, principal, teachers and students in case of any contingency, a suitable alarm system needs to be installed connecting all the gates and a central point in the school. The alarm system should have a display panel to indicate the location from which the alarm has been raised, and the alarm can be manually pressed by guards or get automatically activated if any vehicle or unauthorised character crashes into the gate or someone tries to scale the wall;

- The security officer should immediately verify the reason for raising the alarm and initiate the contingency drill in the school and inform the police. There should be proper illumination along with the perimeter so that nobody can jump over the wall into the school in the night for any nefarious activity;

- In case of the kidnapping of a child, guards at the main gate or the security officer should immediately inform the police, and the guards should give a proper description of the vehicle, colour, model etc. so that the police can announce a red alert and conduct snap checking to search and stop the vehicle. Moreover, the guards at the main gate should immediately press the alarm bell to close the intermediate gates to segregate and secure the children inside the school;

- In case of any intrusion, the police should be immediately informed, children and teachers should stay back in their rooms and those in the veranda should rush to the nearest room, close the door and lie down in the room to escape random firing. Security guards should rush from their positions with the keys of the gates to open for safely sending the children outside as and when possible;

- The guards should check the outside area and ensure it is clear from terrorists and safe passage was available. If the location of the terrorists is known and there is safe passage from the other classrooms to any of the gates, the children under the leadership of their teachers should be taken out in a single file without any noise. Children shall not be asked to gather in the ground as they can become easy targets; - News of such incidents would break out very fast and parents would rush to the school in panic. In order to ensure that parents do not rush to school and create obstructions in the subsequent operations by police and Rangers, they need to be informed to come to a pre-determined place close to the school. This can only be possible if the school management has a system having the mobile numbers of all the parents of children in a centralised database;

- A text message can be drafted explaining the situation giving the necessary facts, place of their assembly for briefing etc., and the message be sent to all. For this purpose, the police should identify the place of assembly.