College student brings gun to school, opens fire at fellow student in Hyderabad

School administration trying to hush up the incident, claim victim's family

HYDERABAD: A local court in Hyderabad granted on Sunday one-day physical remand of a college student and two employees of a private school in Kohsar in an incident of firing in the school. A-Section Police produced college student, Syed Haider Ali, Assistant Admin Officer Aamir Sohail and Security In-charge Muhammad Abbass before civil judge and judicial magistrate XI.

The three were arrested on Saturday on the complaint of Munaf Ahmed Shaikh who registered an FIR against them as well as the college's principal, Aalia Khalid, who evaded arrest. The FIR has been lodged under Sections 324, 201, 202 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

According to Shaikh, Ali fought with his deceased elder brother's son, Muzamil Aftab, a class IX student in the same school, and fired a gunshot at him but the bullet did not hit Aftab. The incident occurred on September 11.



"The principal called us to the school and said that Aftab had a fight with Ali and that we should take him home," the complainant said, adding that they came to know about the firing incident later at home.

He alleged that the school principal and other relevant officers tried to hide the incident and when he requested for action against Ali, they denied that any firing incident had happened.

Shaikh questioned how a student carried a pistol inside the school and used it as well when all students, teachers and staff have to pass through a metal detector walk-through gate. "The school management has tried everything to sweep the incident under the rug," he said. Sub-Inspector Mumtaz Thebo, In-charge of Airport Police check post, said that the police have also recovered the pistol from Ali which was used in the incident.

Talking to the media in the court, Sohail and Abbass said it was not possible for them to check all students entering the school. They said the walk-through gates beep for almost every student because their bags and uniform contain metal items.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2019.