Breaking a mob: Child demanding school reopening injured

We did not hit him with batons, he merely fell down, say police.

LAHORE: A child was injured when police baton-charged protesters in front of Government Islamia High School Bhati Gate on Thursday.

An inquiry committee, constituted on orders of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, later said that the child had not been hit by a baton. They said he had received injuries after he fell on the road.

Hundreds of students at the school and their parents had staged the protest demonstration demanding that the school, which had been run by a trust for several years, not be handed over to the government. Police were called in to break up the protest. They baton-charged the protesters, injuring a grade 3 student in the process. The child’s father took him to a hospital for treatment.

Mian Usman Manzoor, the father of a student, who was present at the protest told The Express Tribune that the police swooped in on them and beat them up. “Fahad Ilyas was injured in the clash,” he said.



Police officials later said that the child’s father had given Bhati police a written statement that his son had been injured in the melee that had ensued after police clashed with the protesters. He said that he did not want to pursue an inquiry against the policemen.

City SP Asad Sarfraz Khan visited the school later and apologised to the children their parents and distributed sweets among them.

In a statement issued later, DIG Haider Ashraf said that the police did not use batons to disperse the protest. “We have a duty to maintain law and order. Our SOP to disperse protests does not include baton-charge.”

Manzoor, whose son studies in grade 1, said the parents of students at the school had become frustrated over the prolonged closure of the school. He said the Ghazi Education and Welfare Trust had been running the school efficiently for several years. The school closed after the December 16 attack in Peshawar and there were rumours that the school might be taken over by the government, he said. “We don’t want the government to take over the school...we want classes to resume without further delay.”

Mian Kashif, another student’s father at the protest, said the school had closed in the middle of examinations and did not reopen on January 12 because of security issues. “Our children’s studies are being affected. We do not want the government to take charge of the school.”

Students carried placards demanding that the school reopen.

A banner hung at the school gate announcing that the school would reopen from January 22. It also carried the cell phone of the new principal.

Muhammad Ramazan became principal of the school two days ago. He said that the Ghazi Education and Welfare Trust had been running the school for eight years but did not want to continue. “They recently asked the government to take the school back,” he said. The trust’s officials said that they could not manage the affairs of the school any longer.

“The school has always been a government institution...it was only being run by a trust,” he said. The government cannot force the trust to manage it, he said.

Regarding the protest, Ramazan said most of the parents who had shown up at the demonstration, were residents of the area who had close ties with the teachers employed by the trust. Since these teachers have been let go, they have egged the parents to protest, he said.

“We told the teachers that they would be accommodated at other schools,” said Ramazan. He said 30 new teachers had been hired for the school and the government had completed security arrangements there. “The school is now open. Regular classes are set to commence,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2015.