Reign of terror in Peshawar

By Saba Rani

There was a time when Peshawar was known as the city of flowers and its citizens were famous for their hospitality. Tourists from all over the world used to visit this city. All this ended when a never-ending wave of terrorism destroyed the ancient face of the historic city and Peshawar became the favourite target of terrorists.

It was on the morning of December 16, 2014, that terrorists attacked the Army Public School and killed nearly 150 innocent people, including 134 students and nine staff members. Subsequently, the armed forces and all political parties combined to formulate the National Action Plan (NAP) to crack down on terrorism. The NAP gave a glimmer of hope to the citizens of Pakistan, especially the students, who were traumatised after the incident.

But little over a year later, terrorists attacked another educational institute, the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, in which 21 innocent people were killed, thus creating a fresh wave of fear among the students of Peshawar.

Terror attacks on educational institutions have created an atmosphere of fear among students and teachers. Threatening letters from various banned organisations have created panic. If this situation is not addressed, our children will be in danger of falling prey to depression, anxiety and other psychological diseases, which will inevitably have an impact on their education, as well as life in general. Already one sees attendance in different schools declining. Sadly, people who wanted to teach the children of terrorists are now reluctant to send their own children to school.

The government has asked school authorities to equip their institutions with advanced security devices, but is reluctant to itself provide security for them, which is its job. Leave alone private schools, the government has shown its inability to provide security to state-run educational institutions as well.

There are only 120 policemen actively providing security to the 50,000 students on the campuses of Peshawar University, Islamiya College and University, Agriculture University, University of Engineering and Technology and Khyber Medical College. I believe that whatever security measures have been instituted so far are inadequate. And after such deadly attacks on our youth, we cannot afford to compromise on security. Our children need an atmosphere where they can study without fear. The government and the security forces need to revise the NAP and fill the gaps through which terrorists sneak in and attack us.