On the principal’s desk at the Peshawar’s Government High School for Boys sits a screen beaming surveillance video from around the campus.
In one of the desk’s drawers, within easy reach of Abdul Saeed’s right hand, lies a fully loaded pistol.
A teacher for 15 years, Saeed argues that bringing a gun to school reassures his students, who are still terrified after a brazen attack on the Army Public School and Degree College in December, when Taliban militants stormed the building and massacred dozens of students during a six-hour siege.
“They would look to the door every time they heard a sound. Now when they see me wearing a gun, they need not worry and can focus on the task at hand, which is to educate themselves,” Saeed says.
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His eyes tear up as he recalls seeing schoolboys as young as 12 with bullet wounds that would not be uncommon on a battlefield.
He brushes away those who criticize the decision to bring in guns to schools, saying “these are extraordinary times and we must deal with them in extraordinary ways.
“After what I have seen I refuse to be helpless and unarmed if anyone comes in to attack my students the way [the militants] did in December.
“We were once warriors of the chalk and the blackboard. Now we must be soldiers at war and fight for the cause of education and a brighter future for our children.”
