Extremist planning to take over English medium schools in Pakistan

The Interior Ministry of Pakistan has ordered police to tighten security around English medium schools in the country after intelligence reports indicated that extremists are planning to take its occupants hostage.

Lahore, Aug 15 : The Interior Ministry of Pakistan has ordered police to tighten security around English medium schools in the country after intelligence reports indicated that extremists are planning to take its occupants hostage.

The insurgents are said to have thought of this idea from the Beslan School siege in North Ossetia, Russia in which 335 people were killed - most of them children, the BBC reported.

The report said the objective behind such an attempt was to stop the Musharraf regime from conducting operations similar to the Lal Mashjid and the Jamia Hafsa episodes.

Insurgents believe that moderate and secular elements in society would be undermined if children from well-off families faced harm, the report said.

The Interior Ministry has directed home secretaries, the Islamabad chief commissioner and police chiefs of all four provinces, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas to tighten security around private schools.

It also directed them to coordinate with the administrations of private schools to avoid any untoward incident, the report added.

ANI