Schools in Pakistan urge govt to ban toy guns, cites increasing violence
In a letter sent to the government on Friday, APPSF president Kashif Mirza said toy guns were also encouraging criminal activities amongst children in Pakistan.
A federation of private schools in Pakistan has written to the Shehbaz Sharif government urging it to impose a strict ban on the sale of artificial weapons, including toy guns, in the country, news agency ANI said Saturday citing local media. According to the report, the All Pakistan Private School Federation, a group of registered organisations for private education institutions, claimed that playing with toy guns leads to 'psychological repercussions' in children.
In a letter sent to the government on Friday, APPSF president Kashif Mirza said toy guns were also encouraging criminal activities amongst children in Pakistan.
Mirza attributed the increase in violence in Pakistan to youngsters playing with toy weapons.
In 2017 the former Karachi commissioner had also written to the Sindh home department to prohibit the sale of toy guns. According to him, these artificial weapons were being used by street criminals and negatively impacting children's minds. In 2015 the Sindh Assembly had passed a resolution banning the manufacture and sale of artificial weapons.
In 2014, six Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists stormed inside an Army Public School in Peshawar and killed more than 140, including over 130 students and school staff. The incident remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the history of Pakistan.
In the aftermath of the incident, toy guns were banned in the cities of Peshawar and Kohat in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to discourage the growing trend of arms and violence among the children.
In April this year, three Chinese teachers were killed in a suicide attack in Karachi university. Shaari Baloch alias Bramsh, a 30-year old female suicide bomber, detonated herself near the university campus.
