Kallar Kahar accident: Students, others protest principal’s arrest

Five arrested by Millat Town police; school owner still at large.

FAISALABAD:

Dozens of students of a municipal college on Saturday staged a demonstration and boycotted classes in protest against the arrest of their principal by Millat Town police in the Kallar Kahar bus accident case.

The protesters blocked Faisalabad-Jaranwala Road, causing suspension of traffic for several hours. They protesters later clashed with shopkeepers, throwing stones at them, who resisted their attempt to forcibly shut down their businesses. The protesters also broke windowpanes of several shops and damaged cars parked along the road.

They chanted slogans against the police for arresting their principal, Syed Riaz Husain Shah, and demanded his immediate release.

The protest ended after negotiations between the students and SP (Operations) Sadiq Dogar. Dogar told the protesters that their principal had been taken into custody for interrogation and that he would be released if no evidence was found against him. Shah was arrested by Millat Town police along with four others – former Faisalabad district education officer Mian Abdur Rauf, Sheikhupura Motor Vehicle Examiner Agha Ghiasud Din, bus owner Asim and Excise Inspector Bashir Gujjar –on the recommendation of Chief Minister’s Inspection Team.

An FIR was registered on December 12 on the basis of the inspection team’s report  against seven officials of the Faisalabad Development Authority, the Education Department, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Faisalabad Motor Vehicles Authority and the Motorway Police under sections 197, 206, 328, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the PPC.

As many as 39 people, including 34 children, had lost their lives when a bus carrying students from Millat Grammar School overturned on the motorway near Kallar Kahar on September 26, 2011.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2011.