KARACHI: A grenade attack has been reported from Karachi on a stretch of road where several private schools are located in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal area on Tuesday, 3 Feb morning. The incident caused fear and panic among residents in the area but no loss of life or property has been reported.
Dawn quotes DIG-East Munir Sheikh as saying that no particular school was directly targeted in the attack.
He said there were no casualties reported as the schools were closed at the time and no students or staff members were present at the premises.
A report in The Express Tribune on the other hand says, At least seven unidentified assailants hurled two hand grenades at a school situated in Karachis Gulshan-e-Iqbal. According to the report, the miscreants riding motorbikes threatened the residents and school staff, and were retaliating to the governments decision to hang terror convicts. The daily also reports a second grenade attack in Karachis SITE area, in which it says three people were injured. That attack reportedly targeted the Rangers and the site was soon cordoned off by police.
According to Dawn, the purpose of the attack on the area housing schools, was to stoke fear and panic among the schoolchildren’s parents. Security and emergency teams reached the site and cordoned off the area. One track of the University Road was blocked after the incident which caused a traffic blockade in the area. Director General Rangers, Maj-Gen Bilal Akbar also visited the blast site.
The report says, the grenade attack followed the execution of two convicted killers affiliated with Lashkar-i-Jhangvi at the central prison in Karachi.
Following the carnage at the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16 which had claimed the lives of over a hundred school children, the winter vacations of schools were extended by the government for security reasons.
The Sindh government had announced that only those schools should reopen for classes where foolproof security arrangements have been made. It also decided to implement a short-term security plan for all educational institutions in the metropolis. The government has started a controversial new program to arm school teachers and train them for combat to fight terrorists, should the need arise.
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