Kolkata: School and college students across West Bengal mourned the deaths caused by a shooting in a Pakistani school on Tuesday, which left nearly 150 people, most of them children, dead.
Special prayer meeting were organised in schools across the state with children holding placards and candles in remembrance. While most schools observed a two-minute silence, children joined their teachers and parents in silent marches across the city.
Students in north Bengal’s Siliguri walked silently through the streets with black cloth bands over their mouths. They held aloft banners that read “Stop Terror, Save Us”. Nursery students with candles in their hands displayed posters that read “Feeling Sorry For Innocent Lives”.
Teachers and students of Calcutta University and Jadavpur University, too, paid homage to the victims and condemned the attack.
“We have never ever heard [of] this kind of barbarism from any outfit in the world. How on earth [can] anyone murder innocent children? I really did not know what to tell my seven year old when he heard the news,” said Kunal Roy, a parent who joined the procession.
Parents also expressed anguish over the lack of security in many schools in Kolkata. “Most of the schools in [the] city have very little or no securities cover. considering the mad world we live in, [we] hope schools take measures at the earliest,” said Sujata Ghosh another parent.
School officials admit very little security as they say they have never considered that anyone would want to attack a school and murder innocent children. “We never thought of having armed guards as the thought of terrorist[s] attacking a school never crossed our minds. But certainly this incident will change all that,” said the vice-principal of a Christian missionary school in the city.
Kolkata’s police has also asked concerned administrators to take immediate steps. “The recent hostage event in Sydney has shown how an individual can hold several people hostage. So we have asked schools to ensure all gates are locked during schools hours and restrict entry of outsiders. Also, many schools have close-circuit cameras others [and others] have been asked to install the same,” said a police official.
“We had never dreamt of having to worry about the security of children in school. Now that has become a real threat. Also, earlier Kolkata was never a part of terror network. But after Burdwan that is also a reality. We are feeling really helpless,” said Riaj Khan, another parent.
