K-P universities closed for third day in a row

Teaching staff demand recovery of Islamia College University VC.

PESHAWAR: State-run universities across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa remained closed for third day in a row on Wednesday to protest the kidnapping of a professor.

Teachers at all public sector universities across the province have been boycotting classes since Monday to press the authorities for the recovery of Prof Ajmal Khan, Vice Chancellor of the Islamia College University Peshawar.

Prof Khan was abducted on September 7 from the Professors’ Colony area close to the Peshawar University campus.

President of the Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA) Dr Johar Ali told The Express Tribune that the government has so far not contacted the protesting teachers. “Ajmal Khan is not alone, we are with him and the teachers’ community of the whole country is with him,” he said.

Ali said he feared that if the authorities did not take immediate steps, all the public sector universities of the country will go on strike.

“Our indefinite strike will continue. We are reviewing the situation on a daily basis and will change our strategy accordingly,” he added.

On November 7, Taliban militants had released a video, showing Prof Ajmal appealing to the authorities to accept the militants’ demands for his release, or else the militants would execute him by November 20.

Profe Khan is the second senior educationist to have been abducted in the last one and a half year. Earlier, Vice Chancellor of the Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST) Dr Lutfullah Kakakhel was kidnapped from the semi-tribal Darra Adamkhel region in November 2009. However, he was released in June after successful negotiations between the government and the Taliban.

Last month, suspected militants assassinated Dr Muhammad Farooq Khan, Vice Chancellor of the proposed Swat University, in Mardan.

Meanwhile, Class III and IV employees of the Peshawar University will stage a walk from the Administration Block to the Peshawar Press Club to press the authorities for the recovery of Prof Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2010.