Beyond the playground: Football rivalry at school gets out of hand

Fight began after a boy updated his Facebook status, led to brawl outside school.

KARACHI:

An argument between school football players on Saturday escalated into a full-blown fight by Wednesday with one of the students’ guard ending up in police custody.

According to an 11-year-old suspect, Rafay, the fight started on Saturday after he won football match at school. “After winning the match, I updated my Facebook status saying that ‘I said I will win, I do what I say’,” said Rafay, who is a student of class six at Westminster School in Boat Basin.

This status update angered his rival team members - Ali Gauhar and his friend Anus Patel, who are both senior students. “I told Ali that I was talking to Patel but he kept hurling abuses. He even threatened me.” To resolve this issue, I called my brother to school on Tuesday to talk to these boys, explained Rafay, adding that Ali slapped his brother and the guard.

At this, the guard offered resistance and hit Ali with the barrel of his gun, after which Ali’s ears started bleeding, Rafay said.

Meanwhile, Ali, who is an O’ Level student at the same school, complained to the police that he was beaten up by Rafay, his brother Haris, their cousin Atiq and their guard Dost Ali outside the school as he was leaving home. He added that the suspects threatened to kill him too.



Rafay’s father, Ejaz Jakhrani, who is also a Pakistan Peoples Party MNA, told The Express Tribune that they have handed over their guard to the police so they can conduct proper investigations. “As per Baloch traditions, we visited the complainant’s family to resolve the case,” he said. “This is not a political issue, just a fight between children.”

Jakhrani admitted that the security guard was at fault and should not have hit Ali. The complainant’s family, which is related to former prime minister Zafarullah Jamali, demanded “we hand over the guard to the police, which we did,” he said, hoping the family will withdraw the case within 24 hours, as was decided in the meeting.

Ali’s brother Khair Buksh Jamali was, however, not willing to share more details. The police are looking into the matter and a case has already been registered, he said.

Boat Basin police have registered an FIR no. 150/13 under sections 147, 148, 506-B and 504-34 against Rafay, Haris, Atiq, and five others who they said they will be able to identify. The complaint was lodged by Ali, son of Pir Buksh Jamali, who is a grade-21 civil servant.

FIRs can be registered against underage people, clarified District South police chief Shahid Hayat, adding that there are separate laws for juveniles that matter during investigations. The case is being handled properly, he said, denying that the FIR has been withdrawn by the complainant.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2013.