KARACHI: Murder-bid charge against 27 professors: Protest plan prompts security alert
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Sept 5: Stringent security arrangements were witnessed in certain parts of the city to pre-empt any attempt by teachers to stage protest rallies or indulge in violence on Tuesday on the occasion of the trial of 27 professors.
The professors had been detained and booked on Aug 22 for taking part in protests against the controversial ban on teachers’ associations in Sindh but were let off on personal bond.
The defunct associations and unions of teaching community had announced that they would hold protest rallies again on Tuesday (Sept 5) on the occasion but the plan was reportedly dropped at the 11th hour. However, since the association had not formally announced the change in programme, police took up position at all strategic points in the city after being put on alert to frustrate any attempt to disturb peace.
They put up barriers at different points in front of the Karachi Press Club, the Governor’s House, the CM’s House and the Assembly Building to stop teachers from staging rallies. However, the day passed off peacefully as no untoward incident involving teachers was reported from any area of the city.
The 27 professors of public sector educational institutions had been granted bail on personal bond on Aug 23 after being named in the FIR No. 188, 2006, registered under Sections 147 and 148 (rioting/possessing deadly arms).
They were present in the court of the Judicial Magistrate-III, South, Saira Junejo, when their counsels appeared before her. The magistrate cancelled the bail after she was told that the investigation officer of the case had inserted some new sections, including those pertaining to ‘attempted murder’, in the challan and that the case was no more in the purview of a magistrate.
Now the affected teachers, booked by the Artillary Maidan police, would have to seek protective bail from the sessions court, said one of their counsels.
Advocates Mohammad Khan, Enayat Bugti, Saathi M. Ishaque, Mubashir Ahmad and others on Tuesday appeared before the magistrate on behalf of Prof Noor Mohammad and the other 26 teachers. According to Advocate Mohammad Khan, they were shocked to learn that the IO had inserted the new sections, including 324 and 511, which pertained to attempted murder and the offences prescribing life imprisonment. Cases involving such offences fell in the purview of sessions court and, as such, the judicial magistrate had to withdraw the bail on personal bond as the same had become invalid, he explained.
Soon afterwards, police in civvies tried to arrest the accused professors to whisk them away from the court premises, said an eyewitness.
It was learnt that the counsels of the accused sought the court’s directives against the intended arrests. However, the police personnel did not wait for the court directives and continued their attempt to pick up the accused. This led to an altercation between the policemen and lawyers and during the course of arguments, the accused professors got a chance to slip away from the court premises.
Mr Khan said that police adopted threatening posture towards the counsels and tried to create a scene. The legal fraternity reacted angrily to the police attitude and a large number of lawyers present in the court registered their protest by holding a demo and raising slogans against police. They held that the police moves to arrest the professors were illegal since they did not have arrest warrants.
The advocate have also moved a plea against the police act of falsely implicating the professors in criminal cases, maintaining that their clients were not hardened criminals but respectable citizens belonging to a noble profession.
KARACHI, Sept 5: Stringent security arrangements were witnessed in certain parts of the city to pre-empt any attempt by teachers to stage protest rallies or indulge in violence on Tuesday on the occasion of the trial of 27 professors.
