Lack of security caused bloodshed: probe committee

CHARSADDA: The committee formed to investigate the January 20 attack on the Bacha Khan University (BKU) has sent its detailed report to the Interior Ministry, official sources said on Thursday.

The three member committee comprising of the Commissioner Peshawar division Dr Fakhre Alam, Regional Police Officer, Mardan Range, Mohammad Saeed Wazir and Additional Secretary Education Syed Ghafoor Baig had been formed to probe the carnage in which 21 persons, mostly students, had been killed and several others were injured. Sharing details of the report, the sources said the committee identified the lack of security as the reason for the incident.

According to the report, the sources said there were only 21 security guards present on duty on the day the militants staged the attack on the university.It further said that the security guards were untrained as they were hired on political basis. The committee in its findings said that all the closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) had been installed inside the university building and no camera had been installed on the boundary walls to keep a check on the surroundings of the university.

They report noted that though a literary society session had been taking place in the university in connection with the death anniversary of the nationalist leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan commonly known as Bacha Khan, the university administration had made no request for deployment of police for providing security to the participants of the event who included poets and scholars.