Law and Order in Pakistan Gets Worse as Schools are Shut across the country after Attacks

Islamabad, Pakistan- Millions of children and university students across the country stayed home Wednesday and are expected to for the rest of the week following fresh bomb attacks a university in Islamabad. Children as little as first graders all the way through Phd candidates in both government as well as private schools across the country got an unexpected holiday from their studies as the law and order situation in Pakistan continues to get worse by the day.

Many schools had shut down earlier in the week and the rest of the country followed suit after two suicide bombers Tuesday blew themselves up at Islamabad’s International Islamic University, killing five people.

“All educational institutions are shut across the country,” said an education ministry spokesman.

“The closure has been ordered because of security threats received in recent days… We will assess the situation and hopefully they will reopen on Monday,” the spokesman, Atiqur Rehman, told reporters.

“We are under constant threat. Our children’s education is suffering. If they can attack an Islamic university, they can do it anywhere,” said Muhammad Irfan, whose five-year-old had to stay away from one of Islamabad’s top private schools.

“We don’t know what to do. We can’t sacrifice our children but neither can we keep them at home.”

Tuesday’s university bombing was the seventh major militant attack in just over two weeks, and the first since the military launched what officials vowed would be a knock-out blow against the Taliban in South Waziristan.

The attacks came after a raid on army headquarters left 23 people dead and five UN World Food Programme workers were killed when a suicide bomber dressed in military uniform detonated his explosives in their Islamabad office.

Authorities believe that many of the bombings in Pakistan, as well as attacks in the West, are being planned by Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who are fiercely fighting the Pakistan army in the border regions with Afghanistan.

Law and order inside Pakistan is getting grimmer by the day as the general public does not feel secure in their daily lives knowing that many government institutions, army and police barracks, and now educational institutions are now targets. The population is becoming shell shocked as live round the clock news coverage by over a dozen Pakistani media outlets broadcasts the carnage and destruction live from the scene of the attacks. The average Pakistani who is desperately poor and trying to survive economically is now also fighting for survival of their lives by avoiding becoming targets of the Taliban and the militants by not becoming unwitting victims during the fight between the government forces and the Taliban.

It used to be that people inside the country for years cried out with pride the slogan “Pakistan Zindabad” (Long Live Pakistan). That slogan has now popularly been replaced by the younger generation as “Pakistan say Zinda Bhaag” (Run from Pakistan with your Life)

The situation inside Pakistan has gotten worse by the day and there are fears by many in the country that it is headed towards becoming a lawless and failed state like its neighbor Afghanistan, if it hasn’t already started on that path.

Reporting by Manzer Munir for www.PakistanisforPeace.com