Teachers in Pakistan are being given firearms training and will be allowed to take guns into the classroom in a bid to foil terror attacks following a Taliban massacre at a school last month.
Heavily armed terrorists killed 150 people, 132 of them children, in a bloody December 16 attack on an army-run school in Peshawar.
“Carrying firearms for every teacher is not obligatory, but all those who want to carry firearms to schools willingly will be provided with permits,” Atif Khan, provincial education minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told the media earlier today.
Provincial Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani confirmed the decision, adding that the province was unable to provide police guards for all of its government-run education institutions.
“The number of police in the province is not enough to guard 35,000 schools, colleges and universities — that’s why we have allowed teachers to carry firearms,” said Ghani.
Authorities began training teachers in how to use guns last week.
“It’s a two-day course. We are training them on gun handling and also on (the) procedure of using it,” said Mohammad Latif, a trainer at police headquarters in Peshawar.
Training period should be increased. BTW its very good decision