Attack on education: Cases registered against seven for vandalising school in Gujranwala

Books torn; students, teachers thrown out.

GUJRANWALA: Civil Lines police on Sunday registered FIRs against seven men for attacking a government school on Saturday and throwing out over 350 students and teachers from the building. The intruders also tore the students’ books and fired shots in the air to intimidate the staff.

None of them has been arrested so far. Three of the seven men nominated in the FIR have been identified as Khizr Dogar, Shaukat Dogar and Asif Mehmood.

On Saturday, police said, the men attacked the school and ordered the teachers and the principal to vacate the building. When they refused, police said, the men fired shots in the air and entered classrooms where they tore books and dragged students out of the building. Residents of the area informed the police, while parents rushed to take their children away.

The assailants fled before the police arrived.

On Sunday, the staff, parents and students staged a protest demonstration in front of the school. They shouted slogans against the police for not arresting the intruders.

They said the children were frightened and reluctant to return to school. They alleged that the police were not acting against the landlords in the area.

They demanded that the government take notice of the incident and arrest those involved.

School headmaster Amanullah said that the assailants had been pressing him to vacate the school. He said they had wanted to convert it into a dera. He said the attackers belonged to an influential family of the area and did not want children of the poor families to get education.

He said he was out to purchase some books when the school was attacked. He said the attackers also made an announcement from the school mosque threatening to harm those returning to the school.

He said the same people had earlier registered a false case against him when he submitted a complaint with Literacy District Officer Muhammad Saleem.

The protesters carried placards that read “We want books in schools, not guns”.

They said the school had been set up in the area because other government schools were very far away. If the assailants were not arrested, they said parents would be forced to withdraw their children from the school.  They demanded that police be deputed at the school.

The protesters dispersed after Civil Lines Superintendent of Police Shoaib Khurram Janbaz and Executive Education Officer Tahir Kashif visited the area. The SP told them that he had reprimanded the station house officer.  He said FIRs had been registered against four men. He said police were looking for the attackers.

The school had been started in Mian Ji Town under the Punjab Government’s Literacy Programme for the under privileged children in remote towns. There are as many as 350 students in the school.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2013.