After nurse’s death: Gilgit nursing school being threatened

Students and staff feel threatened; police offer more protection; nurse’s death investigation going on.

GILGIT:

The principal and nurses of a midwifery school in Gilgit are scared in the aftermath of a tragic incident in which one of their fellow nurse died in an unexplained circumstances last week as some mischievous elements are harassing them.

Due to insufficient security at the school, the staff and trainee nurses are under immense fear and mental stress after the incident.

“We feel insecure in our school as we are being threatened by unknown people who kick and hit the gate day and night,” Hoor Naz, the principal of Midwifery School, Gilgit said on Monday, adding that police have not yet provided security to them.

An unsent SMS in Shabana Akhtar’s cell phone led to the arrest of two suspects as the police widened investigations in a case that has drawn massive public anger and condemnation. The unsent SMS on Shabana Akhtar’s phone read: “Baba! Syed Jarar will be responsible if something happened to me. He blackmails me, he is from Amphary.”

Akhtar attempted to send the SMS around May 12, the day she allegedly took her own life by hanging herself from a ceiling fan.

Hailing from Astore District, the 24-year-old Shabana Akhtar was an assistant nurse in the school, the only local institute providing training to lady nurses. According to police, the nurse tried to inform her father via text message about the trouble she was in, but network problem with her cellular service provider seem to have hindered delivery of the message, which remained undelivered in the phone’s outbox. “We got hold of her cellphone, which was a big help in getting to the perpetrators,” said a police official. He said that as investigations are in progress, they have found some important clues that led to recovery of her cell phone and the undelivered SMS.

“Based on the information on the phone and SIM, we have identified three persons who sent several profane and threatening messages to her,” said the official, adding that two of the suspects have been arrested including Syed Jarar, an assistant nurse in DHQ Hospital Gilgit, while one is still at large.

Principal Naz said that the local administration should depute police, especially women police personnel, at the school so that the terrorised nurses can concentrate on their training. A senior police official said that they will soon track down the culprits as investigations were progressing on a fast track. He said they would increase security at the school if the  administration makes a formal request.

Meanwhile police said that Akhtar’s post mortem report has not been released, even though over a week has passed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2011.