LAHORE: As many as 12 campuses were sealed in Lahore on Thursday, while cases were registered against administrations of 23 educational institutions for making inadequate arrangements for security of students.

After terrorist attack on Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, Punjab home department had directed the administrations of educational institutions all over the province to ensure security measures as per standard operating procedure (SOP).

The SOP makes it mandatory for an institution to “arrange/adopt security measures to the satisfactory level of the police and district administration”.

It states that thorough search of the whole premises, including classrooms, labs, washrooms, rooftops should be carried out on a daily basis before the entry of students and faculty in schools, colleges and universities.

Extensive vigilance be observed during the night time as well, so that miscreants may not enter and hide in the institutions. Security guards and police personnel should stand alert and vigilant all around the institutions, particularly at opening and closing hours.

As per the SOP, deployment of guards at barrier, search of vehicles and pedestrians and armed guards deployment at vantage points, including rooftops should be ensured.

Similarly, CCTV cameras system and generators/UPS should be provided for ensuring power supply for internal and external coverage of the premises.

Lahore police spokesman said that out of 6,365 government and private institutes in the city, some 207 fall in A+ (highly sensitive) category and 131 in A (sensitive) category.

He said Quick Response Force (QRF) was deployed in all six divisions of the city and two armed policemen were provided to each of the educational institutions falling in A+ and A categories.

He said more than 3,000 security guards of different educational institutions were trained by police after conducting security audit. The drivers and the security staff of the institutes were also scrutinised and verified, he added.

He said after Charsadda attack security of all divisions was monitored and some warning letters were issued to 168 institutions.

He said that police also registered 23 cases against the administrations of various institutions and also served 100 show-cause notices for inadequate security measures.

He said only some 700 CCTV cameras installed in different educational institutes were in working condition and some 2,000 had panic button for any emergency situation.

Model Town SP (Operation) retired Capt Mustansar Feroze said that four institutes were sealed in the division and cases were registered against seven institutes.

He said police issued nine show-cause notices to different educational institutes for failing to implement the SOP.

The SP said action was taken against the institutes which failed to meet the security SOP.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2016