Following the shocking Taliban massacre in which 132 students were murdered the authorities have put all educational institutions in the country on high alert
Children are at risk of being blown up by magnetic bombs attached to school buses by terrorists, Pakistan police have warned.
Following the shocking Taliban massacre in which 132 students were murdered the authorities have put all educational institutions in the country on high alert.
And in the capital Islamabad police have reissued a letter calling on schools to increase security and to check underneath buses and other vehicles. The advice also says metal detectors need to be used and school gates should remain closed.
It comes as the Taliban issued a chilling warning that it will carry out more atrocities, boasting: "This was just a trailer".
Education executive district officer Qazi Zahoorul Haq said a meeting with the heads of all educational institutions would be held with reports produced on security arrangements at Rawalpindi schools , according to the Express Tribune.
“We cannot afford another tragedy,” he told the newspaper.
President of the private schools association in Rawalpindi, Ibrar Ahmad, said that the district government had put out warnings a couple of years ago, with barricades and CCTV cameras placed at a number of schools.
“The steps proved to be temporary as cameras and barricades were removed soon after,” he told the newspaper.
Pressure is being heaped on the government to do more to tackle the insurgency following the brutal killings yesterday.
People across the country lit candles and staged vigils as parents bade final farewells to their children during mass funerals in and around Peshawar, the volatile city on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt where the targeted school was located.
Grief mixed with anger as people looked to the authorities - long accused of not being tough enough on extremists - to stem spiralling violence in a nation which has become a safe haven for al Qaeda-linked groups.
At a vigil in the capital Islamabad, Fatimah Khan, 38, said she was devastated by the atrocity.
"I don't have words for my pain and anger," she said. "They slaughtered those children like animals."
Sixteen-year-old Naba Mehdi, who attends the Army School in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi, had a message of defiance for the Taliban.
"We're not scared of you," she said. "We will still study and fight for our freedom. This is our war."
When asked what the government should do, her mother interrupted: "Hang them. Hang them all without mercy."
In apparent response to public opinion after what may have been the deadliest militant attack in Pakistani history, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced he had lifted a moratorium on the death penalty.
Pakistanis may be used to almost daily attacks on security forces but an outright assault on children stunned the country, prompting commentators to call for a tough military response.
In all, 148 people were killed in the attack on the military-run Army Public School, according to the army.
The school's sprawling grounds were all but deserted today, with a few snipers manning the roofs of its pink brick-and-stone buildings.
Army vehicles and soldiers wearing face masks and carrying rifles were deployed by the entrance.
Video shows wounded schoolchildren being treated in a Pakistani hospital:
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