ISLAMABAD: The security situation in the capital is “under control,” Islamabad’s top cop assured citizens on Monday, hours after several educational institutions in the city abruptly closed citing security concerns.
Parents received messages from schools on Monday morning urging them to pick their children a few hours after they had dropped them off. In a message seen by Arab News, one private school urged parents to pick their children for their “safety and security.”
Three sets of parents Arab News spoke to reported that their children were sent home early.
Pakistan is due to vote in general elections in two weeks amid overlapping political, economic and security crises. The South Asian country has witnessed a spike in militant attacks targeting police and soldiers in recent months.
“I would like to inform you that the security and law and order situation in Islamabad is currently under control,” Dr. Akbar Nasir Khan, inspector general of Islamabad Police, said in a video message shared on social media platform X.
“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,” he added.
Khan urged citizens not to pay heed to rumors and refrain from taking unnecessary actions that could jeopardize the security of the city.
His statement comes a day after Balochistan’s Caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai warned that hostile intelligence agencies could target a camp of Baloch protesters in Islamabad.
Without taking the name of any particular group, Khan said “Illegal gatherings” are prohibited in the city.
“Some people who try to conduct such illegal gatherings, we keep informing them that due to the prevalent situation in the country or due to any credible information, [holding such gatherings] can lead to a loss,” Khan said.
Speaking to Arab News, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon said the city’s administration did not issue any order for educational institutions to close.
However, Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi told media the “alert was genuine.”
Pakistan goes to the polls on Feb. 8 and thousands of auxiliary security forces are set to saturate the nation’s capital and northwestern region abutting Afghanistan.
Last year saw casualties hit a six-year high with more than 1,500 civilians, security forces and militants killed, according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.
In 2014, the Pakistan Taliban 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 to rout the militants.
