October 5, 2002	Saturday	Rajab 27, 1423

KARACHI, Oct 4: Police on Friday used tear gas on protesting teachers and students of universities and colleges and arrested 65 of them, including women, who were later released after about three hours.

After boycotting classes at their respective institutions at 10am, a large number of teachers and students gathered at the D. J. Science College, located in Saddar Town area, for a protest meeting and to march towards the Governor’s House against the Model University Act, which has recently been approved by the federal cabinet.

Area people said that police failed to tackle the agitating teachers and students properly and resorted to harsh action to disperse them. The area remained tense till the time City Nazim Naimatullah Khan reached the scene and talked to the protesters as well as with senior police officials outside the Karachi Press Club.

Town Police Officer (Saddar) Tariq Khokhar told newsmen that the teachers and the students were “running riot”, that’s why he ordered his men to take action. “Rallies and meetings are prohibited and as such I was not in a position to allow them to march towards the Governor’s House,” he maintained, adding that they physically caused blockage to traffic in the area.

While talking to newsmen at the Artillery Maidan police Station, some of the arrested students said that it was all absurd to say that the students or the teachers were causing any riot-like situation. “We were not in possession of any weapon nor even sticks and had gathered there to press the government for acceptance of our demands in a peaceful manner,” said one of the students from a technical college.

According to eye witnesses, hundreds of teachers and students wanted to move to the Governor’s House to hand over a memorandum, but they were stopped by the police. Initially, the TPO had agreed to allow them to move out from the college and hold a demonstration near the Karachi Press Club, but later that promise was too not fulfilled.

At around 12.15pm, when the TPO was busy directing the agitating groups not to come out of the D.J. College premises, heavy contingent of police present near the college surrounded the main gate of the institution to confine the teachers and students.

In the meantime, about 200 students riding on a truck and a bus reached on the spot, chanting slogans against the government, to join the rally. As the two vehicles reached the scene and the drivers attempted to park their vehicles near the S. M. Law College, the police turned panicky and started firing tear gas shells, the witnesses said.

Some of the female teachers and students experienced suffocation as shells dropped close to them. A female teacher was reportedly rushed to the JPMC.

The police also resorted to occasional baton charge and arrested about one-and-a-half dozens teachers and students, including women, near the college and drove them to the area police stations. The police also caught the students driving in a college bus and a truck, fitted with public-address system, near the Arts Council and took them to the Artillery Maidan police station.

Those who escaped the police action gathered at the KPC for holding a demonstration. Speaking on the occasion, the joint action committee leaders, including Sarwar Nasim, Dr Riaz Ahmad, Prof Athar Hussain, Sima Zaman Jalil, Osama bin Shafique, Zafar Aziz, condemned the police action and vowed to continue their protest.

They said that TPO Tariq Khokhar was responsible for the harsh action against teachers and students and as such he should be removed at once. They said that state action would not desist them from continuing their peaceful campaign throughout the country as it was their democratic right.

The call for the partial boycott of teaching activities, protest meeting and rallies at all the provincial headquarters had been given by the joint action committee of students, teachers and other professional forums, demanding withdrawal of the proposed model university ordinance and against the recommendations of the task force on higher education and denationalization of educational institutions in the country.

City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, who met the students and the teachers at the KPC during their protest meeting and sit-in, said he had all respect for the teachers and the students and would do the needful to reduce their grievances. He said the demands of teachers had already been communicated to higher authorities, otherwise he would apprise the Sindh governor of their concerns as soon as the governor returned from his tour of the interior of Sindh.

The Nazim visited the Artillery Maidan and Arambagh police stations where the students and teachers were kept. He asked the police officials to release all the protesters on his personal guarantee. The Nazim finally reached the press club with three female teachers, who were arrested from the D. J. College area.

Mr Khan stayed for about one-and-a-half hours at the KPC and finally received the students and teachers released by the police around 3pm. While urging the rally participants to disperse, he assured them that those responsible for the police action would be brought to book after due enquiry.

In all, 56 students, nine teachers, including three females, two drivers and a sound-system provider were released. One of the released teachers stated that police first hit him and then took him away in a mobile.

The leaders of the Federation of All-Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association and the All-Pakistan Professors and Lecturers’ Association in Karachi announced that a complete boycott of teaching activities at universities and colleges throughout the country would be observed on Oct 7 to condemn the undue use of force against the peaceful gathering of teachers and students.

The Muttahida Talaba Mahaz has announced to boycott classes in Karachi and other parts of the country to deplore what it described the worst violence against teachers and students. It claimed that police resorted to heavy shelling and baton charge on the crowd and did not spared even the elder teachers.

Sindh Polytechnic Teachers Association has also condemned the police action and held that it was an attempt to destroy the peaceful atmosphere in the city. It demanded judicial enquiry into the incident.

The executive body of the NED University Teachers Association has announced to observe a black day on Oct 5 — the World Teachers’ Day — along with all other public sector universities in the country to protest against the Model University Act.