Panic grips Lahore after IIU blasts, prank calls

[LahoreEstate]

LAHORE: Panic gripped citizens and managements, staff and students of educational institutions in the provincial capital following a series of threatening calls received by colleges, universities and a media organisation after suicide attacks on the International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIU), on Tuesday.

However, the police said a majority of such calls were ‘prank’. They were of the view that terrorists always hit planned targets whose prior information was generally passed on to the government and the police by intelligence agencies.

After the IIUI attacks, local police officers visited famous universities, including the Punjab University (PU) and the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), and asked their managements to improve security. Police sources told Dawn that some unidentified people phoned two leading universities on Jail Road and a renowned school-cum-college on The Mall and threatened to blow up the buildings.

A similar call was also received by a media organisation and a threatening letter by the administration of the Lahore Press Club.

Some calls were also received by government offices and educational institutions.

SSP (Operations) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed, however, said the calls were received by the educational institutions and a media organisation three days back. He said such calls were apparently prank.

He said the administration of the PU as well as the UET had been asked to close most of their gates for security reasons.

Meanwhile, senior police officers remained busy in planning security arrangements and issuing necessary directives to field staff.

Sources said the divisional SPs had received no written directive to look into the security of public as well as private sector universities but available cops had been deployed at all leading universities. Two cops each for one leading institution were deployed forthwith.

A divisional SP told Dawn that the administrations of all educational institutions were being directed to observe nine security points against the threats as the police could not fulfill their requirements individually. He said the police were doing their best within available resources.

Another divisional SP said requests put up by the managements of some government and private establishments, educational institutions and others to send policemen for security deployment could not be fulfilled because of staff shortage. What the police could do was to provide technical support, he added.

The nine points include raising barbed walls up to 10 feet, deployment of two guards at each gate and rooftop, installation of at least two CCTV cameras and ensuring walkthrough gates and metal detectors and proper evacuation plan.

A senior police officer criticised the administrations of leading schools and educational institutions which, according to him, collected huge fees from their students but did not provide them adequate security.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn...alls-hs-04