Pakistan starts arms training for teachers after Taliban school attack

Police in Pakistan's northwest on Tuesday started imparting arms training for the teachers to defend themselves in case of any terrorist attack on schools.

The government launched the program following last month's Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that had killed 140 children and 10 staffs.

The anti-terror police officers formally began training program for women teachers in Peshawar to teach them how to use pistol.

TV footage showed two women teachers were holding pistols at a police center.

"This training is a must in view of the worst situation. We do not have any other option but to learn basic training," a woman teacher told reporters at the training center.

The police officers taught the teachers as how to hold, load and unload the pistol, point and hit the target.

The government has also decided to issue arms licences to the teachers to keep small arms.

"We are getting the training to protect ourselves in schools and also at homes," the woman teacher said.

The school attack was widely condemned in Pakistan and across the world, but Taliban chief, Maulvi Fazalullah, had defended the massacre and also threatened more such attacks.

The federal and provincial governments have tightened security for the government's and private schools.

The government introduced new legislation to set up military- led courts for the trial of terrorism-related cases after the attack as government ministers argued "terrorists escaped punishment due to some lacunae in the present system."

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also lifted a 2008 moratorium on executions and started hangings in pending cases. About 20 people, what the officials describe hardcore terrorists, have been hanged since the government restored executions of convicts on Dec. 17. Endi