41 government schools in Attock closed for eight days to house police ahead of PTI march

Forty-one government schools in Punjab’s Attock district have remained closed for eight days because they are being used to accommodate police deployed ahead of a planned march by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), leaving hundreds of students out of class.

The schools have been turned into resting places for law enforcement personnel brought into the district as part of security arrangements for the march, Dawn reported on Tuesday.

Schools affected

The closures are spread across five tehsils of the district, with Hazro hit hardest:

Tehsil	Schools closed
Hazro	21 boys’ and girls’ high schools
Hassanabdal	9
Fatehjang	7
Attock	2
Jand	2
Total	41

Thousands of police deployed

According to the report, 30,700 police personnel have been deployed, drawn from the elite force, the special branch and the Punjab Highway Patrol from six districts. The schools are being used to house them and give them a place to rest.

Attock district sits on the main routes between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad, including the M-1 motorway and the Grand Trunk Road, the roads a march from the north-west would use.

Last week, The Nation reported that the authorities had sealed the GT Road, the Attock Bridge, the Khushal Garh Bridge and the Attock Khurd Bridge over the Indus, along with the major and link roads connecting the district to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Hundreds of containers were placed across the routes, and steel barriers fitted with sharp nails to puncture tyres were installed at the Attock Khurd Bridge. That report put the number of police sent to Attock from other Punjab districts at 35,000, led by several senior superintendents and deputy inspectors general.

The march was postponed, the schools were not

The PTI had planned to hold its march on 27 September, but postponed it to 4 October. Despite the delay, the schools have stayed closed and the police have remained in place.

The report said district education authorities were aware of the situation, but no steps to reopen the schools or move the police elsewhere had been announced.

Students left waiting

The exact number of students affected has not been given, but the report said hundreds of students were out of class. With the march now set for 4 October, the schools could stay closed for another week or more unless other arrangements are made for the police.

Roads closed too

The security build-up around the march has affected travel as well as schooling. The Islamabad-Peshawar motorway was closed for an “indefinite” period ahead of the march before reopening to traffic on Monday, while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial government has warned of a strong public response if governor’s rule is imposed.

Why it matters

Eight days of lost lessons in 41 schools is a heavy cost for students, especially when the march the police are preparing for has been postponed. For families in Hazro, Hassanabdal and the rest of the district, the question is simple: when will their children be back in class? Unless the district administration finds other accommodation for the police, Attock’s students may lose even more time before the rescheduled march on 4 October.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn and The Nation.