PESHAWAR: A fact-finding committee formed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on the Jan 20 Bacha Khan University Charsadda attack is tasked with looking into security lapses by the university only, disregarding those on part of the district administration, police and other government organs.

The formation of the committee consisting of commissioner of Peshawar division Dr Mohammad Fakhr-i-Alam, regional police officer of Mardan range Saeed Wazir and special secretary of the higher education department Ghafoor Baig was notified by the provincial home and tribal affairs secretary on Jan 22.

The committee was tasked with looking into the terrorist attack from the point of view of eight terms of reference mentioned in the notification.

However, all ToRs mentioned in the notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn, focus on the university’s security arrangements, guards, their training, weapons they had and standard operating procedures made for special events like poetry recital event that was scheduled for Jan 20 on the varsity campus.

Under the ToRs, the committee is to examine the extent and efficiency of preventive security measures and immediate response to the incident.

Ignores responsibility of police, district admin, other govt agencies to protect the campus

It will also check the total number of security guards recruited by the university and find how many of them were present on the date/time of occurrence. It will answer the question of whether these guards were trained and if yes, where and by whom.

It has also been directed to ascertain fitness criteria for recruitment of security guards and actual fitness of these guards for job they were recruited for, to ascertain numbers and quantity of arms/ammunition and details regarding total number of security guards and their deployment on the time of occurrence.

It will also look into who supervises these security guards and what are the qualification, competence and training of the supervisor or in charge.

It says a poetry recital (mushaira) was arranged on the day of occurrence, details of coordination, if any, with the district administration/ police for the purpose of the security in this respect.

The committee has also been tasked to find out how many cameras were installed and how many were functional, was any monitoring system of these cameras in operation at the time of occurrence, whether these cameras monitored any movement of intruders/terrorists recorded and if yes what action was taken.

“Were SoPs, both for the routine and special events like mentioned mushaira, followed?” it says, adding that the committee will inquire into the incident from point of mentioned factors/ToRs and may examine any other relevant fact and fix responsibility in clear terms.

Apparently, fact finding committee ToRs are focused on the university security guards and their role and completely miss responsibility of police, district administration and other government organs. It entirely misses the element of security lapse and apparently given the district administration, police and other government organs a clean chit in fixing of responsibility.

A police official told Dawn that apparently the home department had put all the responsibility at the doors of the institution and completely ignores the role of police, district and other government agencies.

The official said under sections 9 and 25-A of the Constitution, security of person and right to education were responsibility of the state and that the state couldn’t abdicate its responsibility by putting the entire burden on the shoulders of an educational institution.

The official said it was ironic that Mardan RPO Saeed Wazir, in whose jurisdiction the incident took place has been made a member of the fact finding committee.

He said the committee was formed by the home and tribal affairs department and also its ToRs were set by it and police was not consulted about it.

Spokesperson for the university termed the committee as hogwash and said its ToRs were likely to blame the university administration and its security guards for the incident.

The official said a specific threat alert of impending attack in Charsadda district was issued on Dec 14, 2015 and no one would ask those responsible for ignoring this alert, which resulted in the attack.

He said, “Can anyone ask the government about the action they took on the intelligence report?”

He said on Dec 30, the university administration in written asked the Charsadda district police officer to provide at least 20 police personnel to the educational institution but they did not give the same.

The official said the incident took place at around 8:45am, while police was saying it took place at around 9:50am and that the police reached the place around an hour after the incident.

He said the committee should have been consisted of neutral people, but the existing committees comprising government officials and will give government a clean chit.

The official said instead of looking into security lapse on part of the police, the Mardan RPO had been made member of the committee.

He said at a time when all focus was on the university and its guards, no one asked how the attackers managed to cover kilometers of territory and security check posts and attacked the campus.

“If you provide the university’s guards with tanks, they could not do the job of properly trained police personnel,” he added.

Home and tribal affairs minister Mehmood Khan was not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2016