Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Security of all government installations including 31 educational institutions in Peshawar has been highly alerted after the gruesome suicide attack at Mall road in Lahore outside Punjab Assembly building that claimed lives of 13 persons and injuring 72 others.

SSP Operation Peshawar Sajjad Khan said that extra forces have been deployed to guard two layers of security of internal and external check posts.

He said that number of search and strike operation in the city has also been increased to round up the suspected elements involved in target killing and terrorist activities.

He said that all government institutions, high court, Supreme Court public sector universities were declared sensitive by the home department.

He added that extra security measures have been taken after the Lahore attack which aimed to avert any possible follow up terrorist attack.

Inspector General of Police Peshawar Nasir Khan Durrani has immediately convened the meeting of all Regional Police officers to deal with any emergency.

Additional IGP CTD briefed the participants about the over all quantum of threats and the activity of the militant groups. He informed that various groups have joined hands together due to hostile foreign agency to create instability in Pakistan through terrorist activities.

The RPOs individually briefed the forum about the vulnerability of their areas and different security measures taken by police to thwart any evil designs of the terrorists.

After detailed discussion the IGP has directed the participants to immediately call a meeting
of all stake-holders to
review the threat alert of last one year and analyze them one by one and the action taken by police
on them.

Federal Interior Ministry has declared 31 educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as ‘sensitive’ due to security threats. Interior Ministry has termed 16 universities and 15 colleges in the province sensitive after the attack.

These institutions include Women University, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar University and other high profile academics of Peshawar. The ministry has forwarded a list of the institutions to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the law enforcement agencies.

It is pertinent here to mention that security condition in country is at alarming situation at the moment as two blasts have been carried out in Lahore and Quetta in less than past 24 hours claiming at least 16 lives.

The terrorists had targeted Army Public School (APS) Peshawar in biggest terror attack of the country on 16th December 2014 in which at least 142 people, mostly school children died. After that attack another tragic incident occurred when terrorist stormed Bacha Khan University Charsadda where 20 persons were martyred and several others got injured.

The educational institutions in Peshawar remained closed for several days following the tragedy.

The federal government and security agencies had formulated a National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism and Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched against terrorists in the tribal areas after the attack.

As a result of Zarb-e-Azab operation peace has been restored to a great extent in the country while military courts has also decided cases of several high profile militants which was aimed to restore the confidence of the public on state institutions.

However soon after the expiry of two year tenure of the military courts, terrorists’ activities resurfaced in various areas of the country like Queta, Lahore, Kurram Agency and Karachi.