SWABI: Private schools in Swabi re-opened on Thursday after a day of mourning against the Tuesday attack against a Peshawar school, which left 141 people mostly children dead.

All through the day, schoolteachers kept comforting students and addressing their concerns about terrorism to help them focus their attention on studies. They informed students that the mourning was observed to express solidarity with families of the children, who had died in the school attack.

The teachers and students offered prayers for attack victims in the morning assembly besides expressing solidarity with their families.

The principal of a private school told students during the morning assembly that the Peshawar attack hadnot parallelsinhistory.

`Violence against innocent school-children is against all human norms and values. This doesn`t happen even in wars,` he said. The principal said terrorists couldn`t browbeat the nation, which would continue fighting them for peace and development.

President of Private School Association Raz Ahmad said staff and students of private schools shared the grief of the families of the deceased.

He said innocent schoolchildren were killed brutally and the association condemned the dastardly act.

A teacher said the Peshawar attack diverted his and students` attention whenever they turned to the lecture.

He said students kept asking questions about their security besides Peshawar violence and their perpetrators. The teacher said most students were interested in knowing the motive of terrorists and their origin, lack ofsecurity at the Peshawar school, and possible measures to counter violence against schoolchildren. He said the staff was worried about the safety of schoolchildren on campus. The teacher said children would take time to overcome the trauma caused by the Peshawar violence. Parent s expresse d worry about the schoolchildren`s security. They said it was responsibility of the schools to ensure adequate security of students on the premises.

Mohammad Sardar, father of a seven grader, said parents paid hefty fees to schools, so their managements should provide students with the best possible security on campus. Abdur Rahim, father of two, said the school managements should learn from Peshawar carnage and put in place measures to counter possible violence against students on the premises.Correspondent