Peshawar school attack: Centre asks states to tighten security

New Delhi, December 17

In the wake of the terror attack on a school in Pakistan’s Peshawar, Centre on Wednesday asked all states to beef up security particularly in educational institutions.

“An advisory has been issued to the state governments,” Home minister Rajnath Singh told reporters outside Parliament House.

He was responding to queries about steps taken by the government to ensure security of schools in the wake of terror strike on a Peshawar school.

Though the minister did not elaborate, officials in the home ministry had said that the guidelines for schools will include asking them to prepare an escape plan for children in case of a terror attack, how to prevent hostage situation, how to raise alarm and shut doors and gates in case of an emergency.

Officials have said that some schools would be given special instructions separately and they would be asked to coordinate with local police and administration for security drills.

According to them, a few top schools in Delhi, Mumbai and some residential schools in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are likely to be given special security guidelines.

In the bloodiest terror attack in Pakistan in years, at least 141 people, mostly children, were killed on Tuesday by heavily-armed Taliban suicide bombers who stormed an Army-run school in Peshawar and took several hostages.

“The earlier advisory was issued by the home ministry in 2010 to prominent schools and institutions after 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused David Coleman Headley was arrested in the US. We will revisit the advisory and send it afresh considering the present situation,” a home ministry official has said. — PTI