Daily Times

LAHORE: An audit report has exposed the inadequate security arrangements of educational institutions across the province, as government schools, colleges and universities were still exposed to terror attacks in Punjab.

An audit report titled ‘Special Report on Security Audit of Educational Institutions (A+ category) Punjab’, compiled by the special branch, was submitted to the provincial home department. The report stated that teams of special branch were assigned to carry out an audit of existing security arrangements at educational institutions in Punjab.

The security audit was conducted and 1,074 highly sensitive public and private educational institutions were checked. These institutions included 204 institutions from Lahore, 62 from Sheikhupura, 157 from Gujranwala, 271 from Rawalpindi, 60 from Faisalabad, 63 from Sargodha, 43 from Sahiwal, 98 from Multan, 47 from DG Khan and 69 from Bahawalpur.

It was revealed that security guards of 18 institutions did not have any weapons for protection of the schools, 1,695 security guards of 23 institutions were not trained by the local police, while 469 academic institutions lacked required security clearance.

The report disclosed that mock exercises were not conducted in 111 institutions while 57 schools lacked a contingency plan, adding that regular combing operations in vicinities around institutions
were not conducted in
151 institutions.

The report further stated that the facility of wireless communication was not available in 378 institutions, walkie-talkie sets were not available in 440 institutions and public address system was not available in 47 institutions. At least 27 institutions also lack panic buttons.

The report stated that CCTV cameras were not installed in 13 institutions while in 39 institutions cameras do not cover the whole campus. Only 82 institutions had dedicated and trained control room staff while 179 campuses lacked night vision CCTV cameras, 476 lacked walkthrough gates and 16 institutions lacked boundary walls.

The report further reveals that bunkers were been constructed in 301 institutions, concrete barriers at entry and exist were not installed in 138 institutions and zigzag barriers were not found in 171 institutions. Meanwhile, registers to make the entries of visitors were not found in 22 institutions, search sweeping of the vehicles carrying students was not being conducted in 176 institutions, while physical search of the visitors and students was not conducted in 58 institutions.

Moreover, vantage points were not available in 43 institutions, guards were been deployed on roofs of 94 institutions, while police was not deployed in 579 institutions.

The special branch stated that given the present security situation of the country and sensitivity of the matter the threat of terrorism at all the educational institutions, foolproof and stringent security arrangement for the safety of all educational institutions in Punjab should be made in order to avert any untoward incident.