Schools threatened by terrorists once again

Karachi
People living in the vicinity of the private school outside which a cracker attack was carried out on Tuesday expressed fear and demanded that foolproof security arrangements be made immediately.
They blamed poor intelligence and policing system for the prevalent situation, fearing that the explosion could have claimed casualties, as many children were about to leave for school at the time of the attack.
A local said two men on a motorcycle had hurdled two crackers at the school, one of which landed inside the premises but did not go off; only the one that fell near the boundary wall had exploded. He said the attackers had left behind a warning printed on green, pink and yellow papers.
The man said he and his children were having breakfast when the cracker exploded. “We did not leave the house until the LEAs declared the area safe.”
Students, teachers and the non-teaching had not reached the school when the attack was carried out, he added.
Fearful parents demanded security checkpoints around schools and regular patrolling by the law enforcement agencies.
A mother of three schoolchildren said: “As soon as I got out of my car, I heard people talking about the cracker blast.”
They brought back home one of the leaflets. “My children have many questions, but I have no answers for them. They want to know who the attackers were, why they carried out the attack and would they hurt them in the future.”
The locals believe that the government should shift private schools out of residential localities. They demanded that the government and the LEAs treat the incident as an eye-opener and come up with solid strategies to deal with the looming threat.
A resident said a cluster of schools was operating in the locality, fearing that future terror attacks could claim the lives of many innocent people, including children.
He said educational institutions across the city, private schools in particular, were once again under threat from terrorist organisations, adding that the government had seemingly done nothing to protect students and teachers.