The smoking gun: Four schoolgirls injured in accidental gunfire

Security guard’s rifle went off as the girls were entering the campus.

MANSEHRA: Four girls were injured when the security guard’s rifle accidentally went off at a private school in Mansehra on Saturday morning, police and eyewitnesses said.

The guard was consequently arrested on charges of negligence on duty and the school was shut down for an indefinite period.

Niaz Muhammad, the security guard at Tehzeeb Academy in Mohallah Jandar Banda, said he was on duty at the school entrance, armed with a loaded 12-bore shotgun, when it went off accidentally, injuring four girls who were entering the campus.

They were rushed to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, Mansehra where their condition was said to be stable. Three of the girls, Iqra, Halima and Hadeesa, are students of grade three while Hasan Jan studies in grade four.

The district administration closed the school down until a trained security guard is deployed, a measure made mandatory by the government in wake of the APS attack in Peshawar.

The extent to which beefing up security at educational institutes is effective is itself an ongoing debate. Pictures of teachers carrying arms to classrooms have circulated over the social media as district administrations all over the province press schools to undertake stringent measures on their own.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2015.