Clash at private school: Police identify some of the ‘phadda boys’

Clash may have been ethnically motivated: investigators.

ISLAMABAD:

Some of the aggressors in the students’ clash at Beaconhouse School H-8 campus have been identified with the help of CCTV footage, investigators said on Saturday.

Sources in the police told The Express Tribune that ethnic politics might be behind the clash-- students have made unions on ethnic lines. “There were Pathan unions, Balochi unions and similarly certain others like Punjabi and Seraiki,” said an investigation officer.

The boy who led the public school boys’ attack on the private school was also a leader of one of the student unions, police said, adding that they identified the aggressors by circulating pictures taken from CCTV cameras in schools.

The incident that provoked the fight was an earlier verbal brawl between some Beaconhouse students and boys from different schools at a roadside tea stall located in front of the school in H-8, according to preliminary investigations. They used to hang around at the stall to drink tea and smoke, the police said.

“They (aggressors) called the elite school boys ‘mummy daddy’,” said a police official who added that the scene turned ugly when a Beaconhouse boy and his colleagues scuffled with them. The public school boys left the scene promising to continue the fight at a later time, the official added.

Requesting not to publish the names of students, police said they have identified the students responsible for the attack and will make arrests soon. The students are from multiple federal government colleges, police said.

Police said a case was filed by one of the boys from Beaconhouse School, Asfandyar, an A-levels student who told the police that some 25 to 30 unidentified school boys beat him up in an attack on him after school hours.

He reportedly received a severe blow under his eye, police said. The police report stated the attackers dispersed after one of the school’s security guards fired several warning shots.

While four other Beaconhouse students also suffered minor injuries, they were not serious enough to merit legal action, police added.

Concerned parents

Parents concerned for the security of their children, have begun to question the administration’s ability to ensure the safety of their children. Imtiaz Piracha whose two daughters are enrolled at the private school was concerned at the helplessness shown by the administration.

“The intruders left the scene without facing any resistance and they have not yet been caught. In this situation, my daughters are not safe at the school,” he told The Express Tribune shortly after the incident. Parents have demanded that both the police and the school administration take strict action against those responsible.

A Beaconhouse School official said that strict security mechanisms were in place at the school and that every student was perfectly safe. The official added that the administration was inquiring into the incident while cooperating with the police investigators to trace the aggressors.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2011.