PESHAWAR, Dec 9: The NWFP chapter of the All Teachers Association on Thursday observed a one-day strike in the educational institutions of the city to protest against what it said the government's failure to recover the SET teacher kidnapped two months ago from Pishtakhara.

The protesters threatened to launch a province-wide protest movement if Jafar Khan was not recovered in 24 hours. The teachers gathered at the Government Higher Secondary School No 1 Peshawar City, where their leaders regretted that the government was not serious about recovering the kidnapped teacher.

They demanded immediate removal of the political agent of Khyber Agency as he had failed to take any step for the recovery of the teacher. If the government was really interested in spreading education in the country, teachers' problems should be solved on priority basis, they added.

They deplored that the government had adopted step-motherly attitude towards 1,24,000 school teachers in the province and was not sincere to solve their problem.

"We produced doctors, engineers, lawyers, ministers and others professionals," they said and questioned then why the government did not listen to their genuine problems. They urged the government to recover Jafar Khan immediately within 24 hours, otherwise all educational institutions in the province would be remained closed.