PESHAWAR // When Pakistani Taliban militants stormed a Peshawar school and massacred 150 children and teachers, nobody could fight back.
Shabnam Tabinda and some of her fellow teachers hope to change that – and are practising how to shoot terrorists.
Government authorities in Pakistan’s northwest frontier have given teachers permission to carry concealed firearms in the wake of the December 16 attack in Peshawar – one of the deadliest terrorist strikes in Pakistani history.
Many educators reject the idea of arming teachers as reckless and counterproductive, reflecting the kind of arguments in US schools overshadowed by their own occasional mass shootings.
But for teachers like Ms Tabinda, 37, going to work unarmed is no longer an option. She and 10 other female teachers at the Frontier College for Women are taking pride in their newfound marksmanship with handguns, and plan to carry them to protect their students aged 16 to 21.
Asked whether she felt confident of killing a terrorist, Ms Tabinda replied: “Yes. Whoever kills innocents, God willing I will shoot them.”
Mushtuq Ghani, the higher education minister in the Khyber Paktunkhwa provincial government based in Peshawar, says its cabinet supports the arming of teachers as a logical measure given the reality that the region’s 65,000 police are stretched too thin to provide a first line of defence to nearly 50,000 schools.
Terrorists need to know that schools are not defenceless, and armed teachers could potentially hold off gunmen and buy time for police reinforcements to arrive, he said. Teachers have to provide their own legally licensed firearms, which many already possess to defend their homes.
"We're at war," he said.
The Pakistani Taliban have killed tens of thousands over the past decade as it seeks to overthrow the government and impose its own harsh brand of Islam.
Following the Peshawar attack, the government increased military operations in the tribal borderland with Afghanistan where the militants are based, reinstated the death penalty for people convicted of terrorism, and turned such prosecutions over to military courts in a bid to stop intimidation of witnesses and court officials.
Schools nationwide were closed for several weeks following the Taliban attack on the Army Public School, when seven men disguised as Pakistani soldiers scaled a perimeter wall and opened fire on fleeing children, many of them the sons and daughters of military personnel. When students returned this month, many of their schools had beefed-up security.
Some teachers licensed and trained to carry firearms already have begun bringing them into their classrooms.
“I carry my weapon, but I always keep it hidden like this,” said Meenadar Khan, a teacher at Government High School in Peshawar, lifting his shirt to reveal the holstered weapon beneath, a Pakistani-made semi-automatic with a seven-bullet clip.
But other provinces have not followed Peshawar’s plan to permit teachers to carry a concealed gun, and most education organisations say that’s the right call.
Muzammal Khan, provincial president of the All Teachers Association in Peshawar, said students were already scared by the increased security measures, and seeing their teachers armed would increase anxiety unnecessarily. He said government authorities should take responsibility for defending schools from terrorism.
“Pens belong in our hands, not guns,” Mr Khan said.
Still, the provincial government is pressing ahead with firearms training workshops for teachers.
Fresh from her own two-day course learning to load, unload and fire Glock 9mm handguns, Ms Tabinda said her instructor was impressed that she hit the bull’s-eye, depicting the chest of a human target. Ms Tabinda said she was visualising the Taliban killers behind December’s school slaughter as she fired.
“I hit them right in their hearts,” she said.
* Associated Press
