A month later, another school attacked with a grenade

Karachi
A private school in North Nazimabad was attacked with a grenade on Wednesday, over a month after a similar attack in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.
Nobody was hurt in the attack as students were attending classes. Only a watchman was present at the gate and he remained unhurt.
However, the attack created an atmosphere of fear and panic at the school. Police and Rangers as well as parents rushed to the scene. The school was evacuated and children were sent home with their parents.
The attackers also left behind a note, both in Urdu and English, threatening to attack schools following missionary, military and foreign educational systems, their owners, principals and teachers in retaliation against the hanging of their colleagues in the country’s jails.
Police said two men riding a motorcycle threw a Russian-made grenade outside the Beaconhouse School in Block-B of North Nazimabad.
“The incident took place at 10:32am when there was no police security around schools,” DIG West Capt (retd) Tahir Naveed told The News.
On February 3, two men riding a motorcycle had hurled two grenades outside a school in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block-7 just before its starting time.
“After the Gulshan-e-Iqbal attack last month, police had increased security around the schools and other educational institutes at their start and finish times,” the DIG said. “But the terrorists attacked during the mid-hours when police were not around.”
The DIG said the bomb disposal unit officials had found that the grenade was Russian-made.
Besides he added, police had also collected the CCTV footage of the incident and using it to identify the attackers.
“I have told the administration of the school that they should improve the quality of their cameras. Other instructions have also been given to them to make the environment more secure for children and teachers,” he said. Bomb disposal squad officials told The News that the grenade was a Russian-made RGD-1 and weighed around 500 or 600 grams.
They added that it could have caused casualties and injuries if there were people around at the time of the explosion.
They said it was a time-delayed fragmentation grenade, massively used in Afghanistan by the Soviet forces and later by Afghan warlords. The grenade is still available in the Pakistani market and can cause destruction within a 15-metre diameter.
Central district police and Rangers officials later held a meeting to discuss a joint strategy to deal with such attacks.

Threat letter
“As you sow, so shall you reap” was the heading of the note that the attackers left behind after hurling the grenade.
It further read: “O Apostate Rulers and Fools of Civil Society! O Appeasers of Crusaders’ you forcefully expelled the believing Afghan Mohajireen from Pakistan & adopted a humiliating attitude towards them & despite our repeated warnings you didn’t cease the series of fake encounters & hangings of our Mujahideen Brothers.
“Therefore, in response, we too forewarn all SCHOOLS including Christian missionary ones, Army-owned & those associated with the Western educational system acting as front-line advocates of apostasy & Satanic culture that they too better pack up their bags from Pakistan. Now there is no more place for even these schools to exist in Pakistan. “So from now onwards, we will target the owners, principals and teachers of these schools’ and further asks ‘Ahle Sunnah Parents to immediately get their children discharge from such schools.”

MQM condemns attack
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Coordination Committee issued a statement strongly condemning the grenade attack on a private school and demanded immediate government efforts for the perpetrators’ arrest.
Such attacks are being carried out in the city but not a single terrorist has yet been arrested. The criminal elements have no fear of the law or law enforcement agencies and keep carrying out such attacks to disrupt the city’s law and order, the statement read.
“If appropriate security measures had been taken, the terrorists could never have succeeded in attacking educational institutes.”
The MQM CC urged Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to order strict action against terrorists and provide foolproof security to all educational institutions.