Lecturer arrested in student suicide case

Apparently compelled by almost two-day long sit-in protest on Mirpurkhas-Hyderabad road, the police have arrested a university teacher accused for suicide of a third year medical student of Ibne Sina University, Mirpurkhas. The police on Saturday declared arrest of lecturer Abid Laghari, who is the main accused among five persons booked in an FIR on Thursday, with charges of creating circumstances for 21 years old Fahmeeda Laghari which led to her suicide.

The protest, staged at Mirpurkhas toll plaza, also ended on Saturday as SSP Syed Fida Hussain Shah assured the protesters, led by parents of the deceased, that their conditions about impartial investiga-tion and arrest of all the five accused will be implemented. The SSP acknowledged that three parallel inquiries will be conducted including one by the three-member committee headed by himself and the other by the Satellite Town police station where the FIR has been lodged on complaint of Iftikhar Laghari, uncle.

A teacher, two students and two unknown persons associated with Ibne Sina University have been nominated in the FIR. Abid and other ac-cused initially succeeded in evading arrest to the utter dismay and protest of the bereaved family. However, the family and its supporters kept the movement of traffic from Mirpurkhas to Hyderabad blocked since Thursday night.

The FIR's complainant Iftikhar has blamed the accused for first trying to extort bribes from the de-ceased, who reportedly secured top positions in the first two years of her studies, for better marks. On her refusal, the accused allegedly resorted to harassment and threats.

"She was blackmailed for good marks," the complainant stated. "She used to say that a mafia exists in her university and she used to make such complaints before me and her other family members." Ac-cording to Iftikhar, the deceased reported the blackmailing to the principal and her many times but no action was taken.

This contention has been confirmed by none other than the Chancellor Dr Syed Asad Kazmi who says that the principal had told the student to submit a written complaint. However, Kazmi claimed that he retrospectively told the principal that he should have taken action even on her verbal complaint.

The complainant claimed that Fahmeeda seemed too depressed when she returned home from the university on April 7 and that she told her parents about the harassment as well. The next morning she did not go to the varsity. Iftikhar said before allegedly killing herself around 12pm, she told her younger sister to fight her case for justice. The family later heard gunfire from her room.

Intiazar Laghari, father, said a day before her death she was locked in a room in the university for 30 to 40 minutes and during that unlawful detention she was harassed and frightened with consequences.

Protest

Prof Dr Arfana and Amar of Sindh University, human rights activist, while talking to the media at the protest on Friday blamed the police for avoiding to arrest the accused.

They discredited the three-member investigation committee, headed by SSP Mirpurkhas, arguing that they appeared partisan in favour of the university, demanding that a judicial commission should be tasked with the probe.

They went on to blame the police for apparently favouring the university. Fahmeeda's mother and sister expressed doubt that the data of the deceased stu-dent's mobile phone may be deleted by the police who took away the phone in the very first hour as the phone contained evidence in the form of written messages and voice notes allegedly sent to Fahmida by the accused persons.

A classmate of the deceased said complaints of the students often do not reach the chancellor who, she alleged, attended the university for two to three hours once in a week. "Whenever students try to meet the chancellor, they are told that he is busy." At the sit-in, women and children blocked one side of the road and men the other side. They kept chanting slogans for justice for Fahmeeda and for long-term measures to stop alleged corruption and harassment of female students in the educational insti-tutions.