ISLAMABAD: Schools and universities in Islamabad abruptly closed on Monday over safety concerns, as police in the capital reassured citizens that the security situation was under control.
Pakistan has seen a spike in militant attacks targeting police and soldiers, with over 1,500 civilians, security forces and militants killed in various terror attacks last year, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, making it the highest toll yet in the last six years.
Several schools in Islamabad sent out messages urging parents to pick up their children earlier on Monday for their “safety and security.”
In a video message shared on the social media platform X, Dr. Akbar Nasir Khan, inspector general of Islamabad Police, said: “I would like to inform you that the security and law and order situation in Islamabad is currently under control.
“As of now, there is no situation which should cause you to bring about any change in your (routine regarding) schools and colleges and usual way of life out of fear.”
The video was posted hours after the abrupt closures on Monday, which came after Balochistan’s Caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai warned that hostile intelligence agencies may target a camp of Baloch protesters in Islamabad.
Khan also warned against hosting unauthorized gatherings in the capital “due to the prevalent situation in the country,” referring to the recent rise in terror attacks.
Irfan Nawaz Memon, Islamabad deputy commissioner, told Arab News that authorities did not issue any order for educational institutions to close, but Pakistani Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi told reporters that the “alert was genuine.”
Pakistan is due to vote in general elections next month, at a time when the country faces overlapping political, economic and security crises.
In 2014, the Pakistani Taliban — known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan — stormed an army public school in the northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar and killed more than 150 people, the majority of them children, triggering a massive army campaign targeting the militants.
