I.C.E: Teachers take up arms for self-defense

Nine FCW lecturers receive weapons training at police lines; government allows only school watchmen to carry guns .

PESHAWAR:

In an attempt to avert attacks like the one on Army Public School (APS) on December 16, which left 154 people—mostly children—dead, the police in the provincial capital are training teachers how to use weapons.

Aside from offering to train male teachers, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police have for the first time taken the task to train women teachers in how to wield a weapon. Lecturers from Frontier College for Women (FCW) stepped into Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines on Tuesday for a purely voluntary training which will be undertaken over the period of a week.

Inspector Aneela Naz, a police trainer, told The Express Tribune nine lecturers from FCW are being taught at the moment. “Other teachers will be trained in phases over the duration of a week,” said Naz. According to Naz, the nine FCW teachers will be trained in two days and other batches will be taught after them over the rest of the week.

“The physical training is aimed at teaching lecturers and professors how to protect themselves and others in case of an emergency.”

A police official associated with the exercise told The Express Tribune that Elite Force and women police are teaching the volunteers how to use pistols, rifles and AK-47s. According to the official, in future police trainers will tutor students of grade nine and 10.

According to Professor Durr-e-Shahwar of FCW, given the law and order situation, it is imperative for teachers, students, doctors and journalists to get weapons training.

Shahwar said when she was a college student they were given military training by the National Cadet Corps (NCC) which included first aid, basic weapons operation and tackling emergency situations. The training was discontinued in 2002 by the government. Shahwar demanded the government make NCC training mandatory in colleges again.

Sidra, a lecturer at the FCW economics department said, “In the initial stage, we are learning how to carry a pistol and rifle, how to take aim and how to shoot. It’s an interesting experience and is the need of the hour.”

SSP Operations Dr Mian Saeed said the training was initiated on the directives of IGP Nasir Khan Durrani.

Saeed told The Express Tribune the training is being offered completely on a voluntary basis, “We are not forcing teachers to get the training.” He added the police will assist everyone who volunteers to learn.

“All this is being done for self-defence. Why do you learn judo or karate? For self defence right? This is what these teachers are doing,” said the SSP Operations. Women in other countries carry guns to avoid street crimes, he added.

He said students will also be allowed to get the training if they want to.

New directives

However, under the provincial government’s revised guidelines, only watchmen and security guards will be allowed to carry weapons in schools.

After the carnage at APS, the government had allowed schoolteachers and administration officials to keep licenced weapons in schools and had also decided to issue them permits. However, severe criticism from various quarters led the government to rethink its stance.

An official of the elementary and secondary education department said opposition parties’ leaders, teachers, civil society representatives and parents were critical of the decision to let teachers carry arms and demanded that the government reverse the move. “Now, school administrations have been told only watchmen and guards will be allowed to have weapons,” the official added.

Education minister Muhammad Atif Khan confirmed the shift in policy, saying only watchmen will be allowed to keep arms on the premises of an educational institute. “I personally visited schools across the province and checked their security arrangement,” he said.

Talking to The Express Tribune, All Primary Teachers Association K-P President Malik Khalid Khan said they had conveyed to the education minister that teachers build new generations and cannot be the ones to promote a weapons culture. He added teachers will not keep weapons in classrooms.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2015.