Examination team attacked by armed men

Board team saw armed men passing materials to candidates.

SUKKUR:

A vigilance team of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Larkana, including the controller of examinations, Muhammad Alam Thaheem, and assistant controller of examinations, Zaheer Bhutto, were roughed up by a group of armed men during a visit to the Government Higher Secondary School Thal on Tuesday morning.

During the ongoing annual examinations for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) I and II, a team from the education board reached the school and saw a large number of armed men gathered outside the examination centre passing materials to candidates.

Thaheem told The Express Tribune that, “As an officer of the BISE, I ordered them to leave, because no outsiders are allowed to assemble outside the premises of the examination centre. Instead of leaving, they started arguing with me and my team.” Later, when the team was sitting in the principal’s office, the armed men broke in and started threatening them against carrying out their checks.

The team nevertheless started visiting the different examination rooms, where the Physics II paper was under way. During the inspection, the armed men barged in once again and started arguing with Bhutto. “We caught more than 40 cheating students, and as soon as we snatched their papers, the armed men started beating me and my assistant controller,” he explained. The attackers fled when the police arrived and Bhutto was taken to hospital. No case has been registered so far, said Thaheem.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2011.