17 November 2004	Wednesday	04 Shawwal 1425

WANA, Nov 16: Hundreds of students staged a protest demonstration here on Tuesday to condemn the killing of a fellow student.

Raising slogans, students from different schools and colleges condemned the shooting of Javed Iqbal, a second year student of Cadet College Razmak. Iqbal and an unidentified Afghan refugee were killed when security forces opened fire in Wana bazaar last week after their convoy hit a landmine on the nearby Wana Bypass Road in which three soldiers were wounded.

Speakers at the demonstration criticized the indiscriminate shooting and deplored the fact that innocent civilians were increasingly becoming the casualty in the crackdown against militants.

They said while the landmine explosion occurred on the road away from the bazaar, security forces chose to open fire in the bazaar at a time when there were lots of people there, shopping for Eid.

They said people would have no option but to pull their sons from educational institutions if the government could not guarantee their safety.

Prominent among those who spoke were Dr Azizullah from Bolan Medical College, Rafiq Ahmed from Government Degree College, Dera Ismail Khan, and Ahmad Khan from the Islamic University, Islamabad.